USA
A rare and expensive beauty in her hands.
This is the Eden Rose, a pink diamond ring that is expected to fetch $10 million when it's auctioned on Tuesday.
The stone is being sold by Christie’s in New York.
The auction house believes it's worth the sky-high price tag.
“The Eden Rose, which I'm holding in my hand is a round, brilliant, ten carat, fancy, intense pink, internally flawless diamond. It's an old stone, and what's special about it is that this cut, the round brilliant cut, is normally fashioned for white diamonds to bring out optimum brilliance in the stones. So to cut a stone into a round brilliant with color in it and see this intensity of color is very special,” says Rahul Kadakia, International Head of Jewlry for Christie’s Auction House.
“It's an old South African diamond. And the source of color is the pressure in the stone. That's what gives pink diamonds their color. The more pressure the stone has, the darker it gets. So this stone has a lot of pressure, which is even more special because it shows how well the cutter had to fashion the stone without damaging it in any way due to the stone’s pressure,” he adds.
There is a thriving market for high-end colored gems.
Last month, auction house Philips sold an exceptional fancy vivid pink diamond ring for just under 10.9 million Swiss Francs ($12.25 million).
In 2022, Sotheby's sold the Williamson Pink Star, a magnificent fancy vivid pink diamond and diamond ring, for more than 453 million Hong Kong Dollars ($58 million).
“The mines are not producing colored diamonds in these sizes anymore. The production is done. So diamonds as you see them, especially colored diamonds, are going to get more and more scarce, more and more rare and more and more expensive,” says Kadakia.
"We're looking at unicorns out here,” he adds.
This diamond is on display to the public during Christie’s Luxury Week at Christie's Rockefeller Center in New York City from 7 to 10 June.
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