The buzz had been building up over several months, and it was widely expected to achieve a good price. When Christie’s Geneva auction finally took place yesterday, November 13, 2018, The Pink Legacy, an 18.96 carat Fancy Vivid Pink diamond was sold for almost US$ 50 million (CHF 50,375,000) – exceeding the price at the higher end of the estimate (CHF  30-50 million) spectrum.

Sold at a price translating to over US$ 2.6 million per carat, The Pink Legacy broke the record for the highest per carat price for a pink diamond achieved at auction worldwide. The record was, till now, held by the just under 15 carat Pink Promise, which was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong November 2017 auction for US$ 32,480,500, or US$ 2,175,519 per carat.

The lead lot of the  Christie’s  Geneva auction, The Pink Legacy is said to have “descended” from the Oppenheimer family.

“The saturation, the intensity of this stone is as good as it gets in a coloured diamond,” states Rahul Kadakia, International Head of Jewellery, Christie’s, of the Pink Legacy.  “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.”

Scientists classify diamonds into two main  types — Type I and Type II. A diamond falling in the latter category, has a particularly rare, almost homogenous colour.

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

The Pink Legacy is one such diamond, and shows no trace of a secondary colour; though most pink diamonds exhibit a colour modifier like purple, orange, brown or grey. Moreover, in the Fancy Vivid Pink range, diamonds of more than five or six carats are rarely found. In fact, fewer than 10 per cent of pink diamonds weigh more than one-fifth of a carat, Christie’s notes, adding that 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.

Christie’s stressed, “Only one in 100,000 diamonds possess a colour deep enough to qualify as ‘Fancy Vivid’….” 

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

Over the past years, collector interest in and limited supply of pink diamonds have combined to see the prices for top-quality large pink diamonds  increase exponentially.

Immediately after the sale, the spectacular stone was  renamed  the Winston Pink Legacy by its new owners, Harry Winston.

Pic Cap: The Winston Pink Legacy: A Fancy Vivid Pink cut-cornered rectangular-cut diamond of 18.96 carats, fancy-cut diamonds, platinum, ring size 6
GIA, 2018, report no. 2191528443: 18.96 carats, Fancy Vivid Pink colour, VS1 clarity, type IIa