A 101-carat, near-flawless diamond may fetch more than $8 million at a Christie's International sale in Hong Kong, the first time a gem of this quality and weight is auctioned in Asia, according to the London-based company.
The squash-ball sized stone, the highlight of Christie's jewelry sale on May 28, has the third-highest clarity rating of VVS1 and the third-best ranking on a scale used to measure colorlessness. Colored diamonds are graded on a different scale.
Christie's only identifies the seller as a Europe-based diamond trading company run by three brothers. Hong Kong is Christie's third-biggest auction market after New York and London. Growth in Asia outside Japan is accelerating, fueled by China's 10 percent-a-year expansion, as the U.S. economy stalls.
"The seller called us up in Asia and specifically said they want the gem sold in this region," said Vicki Sek, a Hong Kong-based director of jewelry at Christie's. The buyer gets the right to name the stone, Christie's said.
The colorless diamond is the fourth of more than 100 carats offered at auction, according to Francois Curiel, the company's global head of jewelry. The last three were in Geneva, he said.
Cut from a 460-carat South African rough stone, the gem is now on exhibition in London and is also the biggest white diamond at auction in nearly two decades, Christie's said. In 2005, the auction house sold a 120-carat brown diamond of lower clarity in Hong Kong. A carat is one-fifth of a gram.
In October, Christie's largest rival Sotheby's sold a flawless, 6.04-carat blue diamond in Hong Kong for 61.9 million Hong Kong dollars, or $7.9 million, a per-carat record for a gem.
Source: iht
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