A 14.23-carat rectangular-cut pink diamond ring on display at Christie’s. The ring was expected to sell for $15 million.
An appellate court agreed on Monday to stop a Christie’s auction at which $34 million worth of jewelry was to have been sold on Tuesday evening.
The sale, which was being held to pay back part of a $187 million loan made by Merrill Lynch to the jeweler Ralph O. Esmerian, was to have included a $15 million pink diamond ring and a $6 million diamond-encrusted brooch once owned by the wife of Napoleon III. Christie’s had billed it as “the most important antique jewelry in history.”
But Mr. Esmerian, 68, contended that the auction was a fire sale and that the jewels would bring more money if they were sold privately.
“These were jewels that Ralph, his father and his grandfather had collected,” said Helen Davis Chaitman, Mr. Esmerian’s lawyer. “Christie’s has priced them at one-quarter to one-third of their actual value.”
They were to be the cornerstone of Fred Leighton, a jewelry business Mr. Esmerian bought in 2006 with loans from Merrill Lynch. “This was to have been the focal point of the Beverly Hills store that is opening on Rodeo Drive in September,” Ms. Chaitman added.
Last week, Justice Helen E. Freedman of State Supreme Court in Manhattan ordered the sale to proceed. But the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court stayed that decision.
A lawyer for Merrill Lynch said the fight was far from over. “A preliminary injunction against the auction would be wrong,” said Howard R. Hawkins Jr., who is representing Merrill Lynch. “Christie’s auction is the best way to sell this jewelry, and we are going back to Judge Freedman to seek a further ruling so the auction may proceed.”
Source: nytimes
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