Just last week, Sotheby’s held a single-lot sale for a 102.39 carat D flawless diamond, offered without reserve, which sold to a Japanese collector in Hong Kong for $15.7 million…over the phone. He named it “Maiko Star” after his second daughter. That same collector purchased an 88.2-carat D flawless diamond for $13.8 million, just last year, and christened it, “Manami Star” after his eldest daughter. Today, Christie’s announced another major rock to hit the block in Geneva next month at the “Magnificent Jewels and Noble Jewels” sale on November 11. Nicknamed “The Spirit of the Rose,” a 14.83-carat fancy vivid type IIA purple-pink diamond is the largest of its kind to come to auction and is estimated between $23-$38 million.

Pink diamonds are increasingly going up in value and are being eyed by collectors for their ROI potential, especially now as those with significant wealth are increasingly looking to park their assets outside of the stock market. “We have seen an increase in the prices for pink diamonds since the auction of the Graff Pink diamond at Sotheby’s Geneva in November 2010,” Benoit Repellin, a Sotheby’s jewelry specialist and head of its “Magnificent Jewels” sales in Geneva, told Robb Report. That 24.78 carat fancy intense pink diamond sold for more than $46 million, but it was eclipsed in 2017 by Sotheby’s famed CTF Pink Star, an internally flawless 59.60-carat fancy vivid pink diamond that sold for $71.2 million to Chow Tai Fook Enterprises. It remains the world record holder for the highest price ever paid for any diamond or gemstone.  READ