Frankfurt - Isaac Wolf, a New York-based diamond cutter, was the buyer of the 59.6-carat pink diamond that sold for $83.2 million (R858m) in Geneva on Wednesday night, a record for any gemstone at auction.
Wolf had renamed the oval-cut stone the Pink Dream, New York-based Sotheby’s said. He competed against three others in bidding that lasted about five minutes before the strike of the gavel, followed by cheers and applause. The diamond led the jewel auction, which Sotheby’s said raised a record $199.5m, while the $105.4m sale of an Andy Warhol painting in New York set an artist record. These are high-profile successes for the auction house, which is facing pressure from investors.
The stone formerly known as the Pink Star “elicits almost a visceral response”, said David Bennett, the auctioneer. “This stone checks every box in terms of rarity, quality, size… The crown jewels of England, which is one of the greatest jewel cases, does not have a diamond this size or this colour.”
The diamond, mined by De Beers in South Africa, is fancy vivid pink, the highest grade for the colour of diamonds, and the purity of its crystals ranks among the top 2 percent.
The old record for a gem at auction was set in 2010 by the $45.6m Graff Pink diamond.
Crowning the auction season, a Francis Bacon triptych, Three Studies of Lucian Freud, became the priciest artwork at auction on Tuesday when Christie’s sold it for $142.4m, beating last year’s sale by Sotheby’s of Edvard Munch’s The Scream.
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