Fall 2022 Auction Highlights
The astounding results of colored diamond sales in the spring auction season (Summer 2022 GNI, pp. 260–263) left expectations high for fall. Pink diamonds set the scene for the beginning of the season, starting with a bang at a Sotheby’s stand-alone sale in Hong Kong in October. Selling for $57.7 million, almost three times its estimate, the 11.15 ct Williamson Pink Star (figure 1) became the second most valuable jewel ever sold at auction. After 20 minutes and 50 bids, the GIA-graded natural Fancy Vivid pink internally flawless cushion-shaped diamond broke the record price per carat for any diamond or gemstone sold at auction, at $5.2 million a carat.
The colored diamond trend headed downward the following month with the Fortune Pink (figure 2) at Christie’s Magnificent Jewels sale in Geneva, selling below expectations at the lower end of its estimate. Fetching $28.9 million, the GIA-graded 18.18 ct stone is the largest pear-shaped Fancy Vivid pink diamond ever sold at auction.
Another pink diamond, a 13.15 ct emerald cut, was slated to lead Christie’s December Magnificent Jewels sale in New York before it was withdrawn weeks before the auction and later revealed as alleged stolen property. A 31.62 ct Fancy blue diamond pendant (figure 3) was then placed as the top lot of the auction. The GIA-graded pear modified brilliant cut, noted by Christie’s as the largest of its kind to appear at auction, garnered $11.8 million, toward the lower end of the estimate. Three other blue diamonds offered by Sotheby’s from the De Beers Exceptional Blue collection drew lackluster results throughout the season. Two were left unsold, and one was withdrawn prior to auction.
In an unexpected conclusion to the season, the Golden Canary (figure 4) sold below its estimate at $12 million. Without a reserve, Sotheby’s anticipated the 303.10 ct pear-shaped Fancy Deep brownish yellow diamond to secure more than $15 million in the New York auction. Still, the diamond became the third most valuable diamond ever sold at auction, Sotheby’s noted. As the largest flawless or internally flawless and largest pear-shaped diamond graded by GIA to date, the Golden Canary can be traced back to a young girl’s discovery of an 890 ct rough near her uncle’s house in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the early 1980s. The 407.48 ct Incomparable, the largest of the 15 finished stones from the rough diamond, was recently transformed into the Golden Canary to improve its color and shape.
The real surprise of Sotheby’s New York auction—and perhaps the season—was the sale of a ring featuring a 6.25 ct emerald recovered from the legendary 1622 shipwreck of the Nuestra Señora de Atocha. The ring sold in just five minutes for $1.2 million, more than 17 times its estimate. All proceeds were donated to humanitarian efforts in Ukraine.
