5.5-Carat Pink Diamond Leads Christie’s Auction Selling For $9.5 Million

A 5.50-carat oval-cut fancy vivid pink diamond with VVS1 clarity sold for more than $9.5 million (over $1.7 million per carat) Tuesday at Christie’s New York Important Jewels sale. The price was well above the precaution estimate of $7.5 million.

Two other lots earned more than $1 million: A 20.08-carat, D‐color VVS1 potentially internally flawless rectangular cut diamond ring by Taffin (pictured above) that sold for $3 million ($153,240 per carat), within its estimate, and a 5.91-carat rectangular-cut fancy light pink VS1 diamond that sold for more than $1.8 million ($310,490 per carat), about three times its high estimate of $675,000. 

The auction itself achieved more than $27.5 million with 83 percent sold by lot and 85 percent sold by value. Seven of the 10 buyers were from the jewelry trade. 

Other highlights of the sales included the following:

* A long chain diamond necklace by Leviev (pictured above) with 108 collet-set diamonds, weighing approximately 1.16 to 1.00 carats with the reverse of each enhanced with pavé-set diamonds. It’s joined by a circular-cut diamond and cabochon emerald openwork clasp, mounted in platinum. It sold for $965,000.

* A pair of pear-shaped D-color internally flawless diamond ear pendants (pictured above) of 5.46 and 5.00 carats that sold for $905,000.

* A Van Cleef & Arpels diamond and sapphire “zip” necklace (pictured above) fetched $389,000, above its $350,000 high estimate. The circular-cut piece is designed to look like a zipper, with a caliber-cut sapphire sliding ribbon, mounted in 18k white gold. 

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