Christie’s is all set to offer a spectacular diamond to connoisseurs – The Pink Legacy, which is a 18.96-carat Fancy Vivid Pink stone. Its estimate has been set for between US$ 30,000,000 to US$ 50,000,000.

Rahul Kadakia, International Head of Jewellery at Christie’s, outlines the reasons why this diamond is set to make auction history when it is put up for sale by the auction house at its Magnificent Jewels sale on November 13 this year in Geneva.

“The saturation, the intensity of this stone is as good as it gets in a coloured diamond,” enthuses Kadakia. “To find a diamond of this size with this colour is pretty much unreal.  You may see this colour in a pink diamond of less than one carat. But this is almost 19 carats and it’s as pink as can be. It’s unbelievable,” he added

Diamonds have been classified by gemmologists into two main ‘types’ — Type I and Type II. “In the latter, the diamond has a particularly rare, almost homogenous colour,” Christie’s notes.

Pink diamonds fall under the rare Type IIa category of diamonds, explain specialists. “These are stones that have little if any trace of nitrogen, and make up less than two per cent of all gem diamonds,” they say. “Type IIa stones are some of the most chemically pure diamonds often with exceptional transparency and brilliance.”

Christies goes on to point out that while most pink diamonds exhibit a colour modifier like purple, orange, brown or grey, the Pink Legacy shows no trace of a secondary colour.

“Its even colour distribution, combined with a balanced saturation, tone and straight pink hue, qualify the 18.96 carat diamond for the coveted ‘Fancy Vivid’ colour grading from the Gemological Institute of America (GIA). Only one in 100,000 diamonds possess a colour deep enough to qualify as ‘Fancy Vivid’,” Christies’s explains.

Further it is well known that in the Fancy Vivid Pink range, rarely are diamonds of more than five or six carats found. “In fact, fewer than 10 per cent of pink diamonds weigh more than one-fifth of a carat,” Christie’s adds. “In the saleroom, Fancy Vivid Pink diamonds over 10 carats are virtually unheard of — in over 250 years of auction history at Christie’s, only four such stones have ever appeared for sale.”

Comments Tom Moses, Executive Vice President GIA: “Pink diamonds of any size and depth of colour have always had a special allure. This 18.96 carat emerald cut pink diamond is amongst the rarest of all gemstones.” 

Demand for pink diamonds from collectors, combined with an increasingly limited supply, has led to prices for top-quality large pink diamonds increasing exponentially over the years. This  reached “an historic level”, Christie’s recounts, when  in Hong Kong in November 2017 the auction house  sold ‘The Pink Promise’, an oval-shaped Fancy Vivid Pink diamond of just under 15 carats, for US$ 32,480,500 — which translates into a whopping US$ 2,175,519 per carat. “The figure remains the world auction record price per carat for any pink diamond,” Christie’s stresses.

Adding to its physical attributes, and contributing greatly to the historical nature of its sale,  is the matter of The Pink Legacy’s provenance, which is sure to be of interest especially for those from the diamond world. For, this delectable diamond traces its lineage to none other than the collection of the Oppenheimer Family.

Ahead of the actual sale in Geneva, the diamond is set to travel for viewing to Hong Kong, London and New York;  before returning to Christie’s Geneva salesroom at the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues.

Pic Cap: The Pink Legacy - A Fancy Vivid Pink cut-cornered rectangular-cut diamond of 18.96 carats. Estimate: $30,000,000-50,000,000. Offered on 13 November in the Magnificent Jewels sale at Christie’s in Geneva

Pic Courtesy: Christie’s