On Tuesday, Christie's held a sale of New York Jewels in that city which shows the continuing strength of that market worldwide, especially in Asia - seven of the ten most valuable lots selling to private Asian collectors.
Three lots brought seven figure sums, and of their final prices were in excess of their estimates:
An elegant pear-shaped light pink 12.50ct diamond ring sold for $1,482,500 (that's $119,000 per carat) to an Asian collector after a short bidding battle which saw it rise clearly above its $800,000-1,200,000 estimate.
A modified square-cut fancy intense orangey-pink 10.19ct diamond ring, with the main gem flanked on either side by a shield-shaped diamond and set in rose gold and platinum, was bought for $2,322,500, above its estimate of $1,000,000-1,500,000 to William Goldberg.
In many ways this was the biggest story of the auction, as it was a world record price per carat for a diamond at auction, as well as being a record for a fancy intense orangey pink diamond overall.
However, top lot status went to an exquisite cushion-cut diamond set in platinum. That diamond is a D colour, VVS1 Type IIa diamond weighing 27.03ct. Type IIa diamonds are the most chemically pure type of diamond and often have exceptional optical transparency.
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Estimated at $2.5m-3m, it beat even this strong estimate following some frenetic bidding to sell to an Asian collector for $3,554,500.
Rahul Kadakia, Head of Jewelry for Christie's Americas commented: "As a sign of the resurgence of the market, a cushion-cut D VVS1 diamond of 27 carats achieved $131,500 per carat in this sale, versus $130,000 per carat for a 30-carat D colour Flawless diamond sold in New York at this time last year.
"This represents a 45% per-carat increase in the value of top diamonds in just 12 months time. A fitting close to the spring Jewelry season at Christie's U.S., which achieved a grand total of $56 million in sales."
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