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Auctions
Over The Moon
Two spectacular colored diamonds, a fancy vivid pink and a fancy vivid blue, were the record-setting top lots at the Geneva auctions
By Francesco Rosa
Fancy colored diamonds set the pace for the market and broke records at the 2015 autumn auctions of magnificent jewels at Christie’s and Sotheby’s in Geneva, boosting the combined sale total of the two auction houses to $249 million worth of jewelry sold in two days. The days leading up to the sales saw busy viewing sessions at both auction houses, including several new attendees from the diamond trade in Ramat Gan. They were in Geneva for the first time specifically to decide if they could take advantage of current market conditions.
“The mood and attendance were great. There was active buying from the trade for colored diamonds, colored stones and signed jewelry,” noted Marc Boghossian, president of Geneva-based Bomare SA. “But there is confirmed softness for white diamonds, especially the high-quality stones, reflecting the Asian market resistance to spend on such items for the moment.”
Filippo Battino of Geneva-based Filippo Battino SA, agreed, “If you look lot by lot, regular white diamonds are not performing well, but if you go and pick the special shape, the special color/clarity combination, those diamonds performed well. At auction, it is all about feeling that if you miss it, it will not come back.”
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| A cushion-shaped, fancy vivid pink diamond, VVS2 clarity, weighing 16.08 carats, sold at Christie’s for $28,523,925. Photo courtesy Christie’s.
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Christie’s sale was 80 percent sold by lot and 86 percent sold by value. The largest cushion-shaped fancy vivid pink diamond ever to be offered at auction pushed the sale total to $109,492,525, setting an auction record for that color. Weighing 16.08 carats and with a VVS2 clarity, this diamond was the top lot of the evening, selling for $28,523,925*, or $1,773,875 per carat. The anonymous Asian private buyer immediately renamed the diamond The Sweet Josephine, starting a frenzy of speculation about his identity that only started to unravel the following night.
The second top lot was a pear-shaped brilliant-cut, 50.48-carat DIF diamond, which sold to the international trade for $7,837,749, or $155,264 per carat. A cushion-shaped, fancy vivid yellow, VS2 diamond of 91.81 carats was the third top-selling lot, going to Middle Eastern trade for $4,278,837, or $46,605 per carat.
“We sold a good pink, which goes to show you that the market is healthy for rare and special items,” said Rahul Kadakia, international head of jewelry, Christie’s. “There is a softness in the white diamond market. They are selling, but at a price, and stones that are priced where the market would like them to be, are not selling. That is not to say there isn’t a market, it just needs to be a few points lower than where people would like it to be, and at those levels, stones are selling. A commercial L, VS stone, which was very punchy a few seasons ago, is now going through a period of softness. The diamonds are not achieving $40,000 to $50,000 a carat because the price is more like $30,000 a carat. It’s a normal correction in the market.”
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| The Blue Moon, a cushion-shaped, fancy vivid blue, type IIb diamond weighing 12.03 carats sold at Sotheby’s for $48,468,158. Photo courtesy Sotheby’s. |
The following day at Sotheby’s saw new records set. The star of the sale was The Blue Moon, a cushion-shaped, fancy vivid blue, internally flawless, type IIb diamond weighing 12.03 carats. It eclipsed previous records by selling for an astronomical $48,468,158, which at $4,028,941 per carat is a new world auction record price for any diamond of any color or any gemstone, as well as a new auction record price-per-carat for any diamond or any gemstone and also an auction record for any jewel. This record-breaking blue diamond propelled the grand total to an impressive $139,085,346. The sale was 82.8 percent sold by lot, with 410 of the 495 lots on offer finding a new owner. Sotheby’s no longer calculates the sale percentage sold by value.
In a room filled with trade, private and media spectators, two telephone bidders dueled during eight intense minutes before the hammer eventually went down on the blue diamond to enthusiastic applause. When Sotheby’s revealed that the anonymous Hong Kong buyer had immediately renamed the diamond The Blue Moon of Josephine, it became clear to the media that the buyer may have been the same one who had purchased the top lot at Christie’s the previous night. A few hours later, a spokeswoman for property tycoon Joseph Lau confirmed to several media organizations that Lau was, in fact, the buyer of both diamonds, and that he had renamed them for his seven-year-old daughter. However, neither auction house would confirm that Lau was the buyer.
Two more colored diamonds were the second and third top-selling lots at Sotheby’s. A fancy vivid purple-pink diamond and white diamond ring weighing 8.24 carats sold for $13,866,553, or $1,682,834 per carat. Taking third place, a pendant set with a briolette fancy orangy pink diamond weighing 15.20 carats, property of Sir Sean Connery, sold for $4,044,162, or $266,063 per carat, setting a new auction record for a fancy orangy pink diamond.
“It is wonderful to be able to inject excitement and optimism into a trade market that is relatively depressed, and so obviously a new world record for a gem or a jewel is extremely good news,” said David Bennett, Sotheby’s worldwide chairman of jewelry. “It has been round the world on all the press lines and that puts the end user in a better mood of buying. I am sure of that. World record prices have a huge effect on the public’s perception of the diamond market. I have seen that many times and it’s great when it comes at a point when the market is flat.”
*All prices include buyer’s premium.Article from the Rapaport Magazine - December 2015. To subscribe click here.
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