GENEVA: The Fortune Pink, an exceptionally rare giant gemstone, will be auctioned in Geneva, Switzerland in early November, when it is expected to go for up to $35 million (36 million euros), auctioneers said on Monday.
At more than 18 carats, the vividly colored gem is the largest pear-shaped pink diamond of its quality ever to be offered at auction, according to auction house Christie’s.
The diamond, which goes under the hammer for the first time on November 8, has been estimated at between $25 million and $35 million.
The sparkling tear-drop-shaped stone, which has been mounted on a ring flanked by a large white diamond on either side, weighs 18.18 carats.
Christie’s highlighted that this was considered a lucky number in Asia, where it signified “definite prosperity,” saying it expected the diamond to “garner interest from collectors across the globe.”
“Weighing in at an auspicious 18.18 carats…the weight, in fact, brings luck to the new owner,” Angela Berden, Christie’s senior jewelry specialist, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“It’s a beautiful stone. It’s extremely rare to find a pink diamond — [a] vivid pink diamond — of this size,” Berden said.
“The color saturation of this stone is…so difficult to find in nature, and then when you find a crystal…with that weight, with that color, and a very good clarity — that’s just really rare,” she added . “I wouldn’t know where to find another one at this moment.”
While the Fortune Pink is the largest vivid pink pear-shaped diamond to go to auction, larger cushion-shaped pink diamonds have gone under the hammer before.
In 2018, Christie’s sold the 18.96-carat Winston Pink Legacy, which raked in over $50 million — the highest per-carat price ever paid for a stone of its kind.
The giant Raj Pink diamond, weighing a full 37.3 carats, meanwhile, failed to sell at a Sotheby’s auction a year earlier, where it had been estimated at up to $30 million.