£3.7 million fancy vivid yellow to lead Christie’s’ autumn auction

The golden yellow hue of the large, pear-shaped stone – which is about the “size of a guitar plectrum” – is reportedly so intense that the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) ranks it amongst the rarest of gemstones in its class. Christie’s believes the stone has the potential to surpass the record per-carat price of $203,000 (£124,000) achieved for The Golden Drop, a pear-shaped yellow diamond of 18.49 carats sold in June 1990 at Christie’s London.

“The Vivid Yellow literally blazes with colour, unlike any yellow diamond I’ve ever seen,” said Rahul Kadakia, head of jewellery for Christie’s Americas. “In the world of diamonds, a naturally-coloured stone of this incredible colour and size represents a freak occurrence – an extremely rare geological phenomenon.”