Here's Sotheby's Details and Cataloguing page.
And here's Bloomberg:
Sotheby's Sells Record $71 Million Diamond to Chow Tai Fook
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Second time is the charm after 2013 sale of gem collapsed
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Jewelry chain wins auction after 5-minute contest in Hong Kong
Hong Kong-based jewelry retailer Chow Tai Fook bought a 59.6 carat pink diamond for about $71 million, setting the world record for the top auction price for any gem. The stone has an unusual distinction: it has attracted even higher bids in the past.
The jeweler made the HK$553 million winning bid for the Pink Star, ending a five-minute contest that included three phone bidders, Sotheby’s said Tuesday. The oval-shaped diamond dethroned the Oppenheimer Blue, which fetched $58 million in May at Christie’s.
In a quirk of auction history, the record price for the Pink Star is some $12 million lower than the $83 million offer Sotheby’s adjudicated it for in 2013. That sale collapsed because the buyer, diamond-cutter Isaac Wolf, never paid, and the auction house had to reclaim the stone.
Chow Tai Fook’s purchase gives Sotheby’s some respite after it failed to sell other major gems last year, including the biggest rough diamond found in more than 100 years and a blue diamond ring that once belonged to Hollywood actress Shirley Temple.Previously in the saga:
World’s Largest Jeweler
Chow Tai Fook, founded in 1929, is the world’s largest jeweler, operating more than 2,000 stores throughout greater China. This isn’t its first purchase of the kind: last year it bought a green diamond for $17 million at a Christie’s auction, and in 2010 the jeweler set a record with its $35 million purchase of a rough diamond from Cullinan. In 2015, Chow Tai Fook unveiled a necklace made with 24 gems cut from that 507 carat stone....MORE
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