The Pink Star is the Star at Sotheby's
Posted by Manuel Diaz on
The Pink Star continues to uphold its title as the world’s most expensive diamond. It was sold for an extraordinary $71.2 million at Sotheby’s Hong Kong last Tuesday to Chinese jeweler Chow Tai Fook.
Dubbed as one of the world’s greatest natural treasures, the Pink Star is actually the world’s most expensive jewel. It was originally supposed to be sold to Isaac Wolf for $83.2 million in November 2013, but the deal fell short.
The previous record holder for world’s most expensive jewel was the 14.6-carat Oppenheimer Blue, sold for $57.5 million at a Christie’s auction in Geneva in May 2016. Each carat was valued at $3.9 million.
This pink diamond is described as an oval, mixed-cut, fancy vivid pink, “internally flawless” 59.60-carat jewel valued at $1.9 million per carat 59.60 carats. Steinmetz Diamonds took about two years to cut it from a 132.50-carat rough extracted by De Beers in 1999. They named the jewel Steinmetz Pink until 2007.
After its purchase this year, it was renamed as the CTF PINK STAR to commemorate the late father of Chow Tai Fook’s current chairman and founder, Dr. Henry Cheng Kar-Shun. He made the purchase and outbid 2 other sellers within 5 minutes. This new name also commemorates the renowned jeweler’s 88th anniversary.