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A pink diamond weighing almost 60 carats has been lined up for auction and is expected to sell for as much as $60m – the largest sum ever paid for a gemstone of any kind at auction.
The ‘Pink Star’, as it is being dubbed by Sotheby’s auctioneers, is an oval-cut diamond, and is the largest internally flawless vivid pink diamond that the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) has ever verified.
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To date, the world record for an auction price for jewels or gemstones is $46.2m, achieved in 2010 with the sale of the Graff Pink, a 24.78-carat stone which was also sold by Sotheby’s.
The chairman of Sotheby’s European jewellery division, David Bennett, said: “This 59.50-carat stone is simply off any scale and passes, I believe, into the ranks of the earth’s greatest natural treasures.”
This latest record-breaker, which was mined by De Beers and cut from a 132-carat piece of rough, has been known to the general public since a grand unveiling in Moncaco back in 2003, and has spent several years touring exhibitions including the De Beers Millenium Star.
