Pink Diamond Sells for $20M at Sotheby's

RAPAPORT... A pink diamond ring was the top lot at Sotheby'sHong Kong auction Monday, garnering HKD 155.8 million ($19.9 million), or $1.9 million per carat.  The cut-cornered rectangular mixed-cut, 10.64-carat, fancy-vivid-purplish-pink, internally flawless stone, set between two white trapeze diamonds, had a presale estimate of HKD 150 million to HKD 200 million ($19.1 million to25.5 million). Total proceeds at the Magnificent Jewels and Jadeite auction came to HKD 300.8 million ($38.3 million). A 100.02-carat, fancy-intense-yellow diamond necklace byAnna Hu, fashioned in the shape of a pipa - a Chinese musical instrument similarto a four-stringed lute - sold for HKD 45.3 million ($5.8 million) against apresale estimate of HKD 40 million to HKD 50 million ($5.1 million to $6.4million). The necklace was one of five pieces in Hu's Silk Road MusicCollection, all of which found buyers, Sotheby's told Rapaport News. Meanwhile, a necklace featuring a pear-shaped, 15.08-carat diamondsuspended from a row of alternating step-cut and brilliant-cut diamonds broughtin HKD 9.2 million ($1.2 million). It was estimated at HKD 7.6 million to HKD10 million ($968,860 to $1.3 million). Three of the auction's top lots failed to find a buyer, includingan emerald-cut, 80.88-carat, D-flawless, type IIa diamond with a presaleestimate of $10 million to $12.8 million, Sotheby's added. An 11.88-carat,pigeon's blood Burmese ruby and diamond ring by designer Raymond Yard, valuedat $5.6 million to $8.2 million, and a jadeite bead necklace with a diamondclasp, estimated at $3.2 million to $4.1 million, also went unsold. Image: The 10.64-carat pink diamond. (Sotheby's)