Rare pink diamond sold for record 29mln pounds

LONDON - A rare pink diamond, which has been sold for 29 million pounds, has broken the world record for a jewel sold at auction.

The diamond was sold by celebrity jeweller Harry Winston some 60 years ago and has been in a private collection ever since.

Sotheby’s said the buyer is British diamond dealer Laurence Graff.

The price easily tops that of the blue 35.56-carat Wittelsbach-Graff diamond auctioned for 15.3 million pounds in 2008.

The 24.78-carat gem, classified by the Gemological Institute of America as “fancy intense pink”, was sold by Sotheby’s in Geneva.

It has been assessed as type IIa - meaning it is in the top two per cent of the world’s diamonds.

“It is a world record price for a jewel at auction,” the Telegraph quoted David Bennett, chairman of Sotheby’s jewellery department in Europe and the Middle East, as he brought down the hammer, as saying.

“It’s like pink champagne,” he added.

The stone, purchased from American jeweller Harry Winston 60 years ago by the anonymous owner who consigned it for auction in the Swiss city, had a pre-sale estimate of 27-38 million pounds. (ANI)