GENEVA, May 9 — One of the world’s largest yellow diamonds will go under the hammer in Geneva next week, with the Sotheby’s auction house hoping to rake in up to US$25 million (RM80.7 million) for the gem.
The Graff Vivid Yellow, the colour of a daffodil and weighing 100.09 carats, figures among a wide range of pieces for sale at Sotheby’s spring Magnificent Jewels and Nobel Jewels auction in the Swiss city on May 13.
The rock, one of the world’s largest cut diamonds of any colour, is mounted as a ring and sparkles with “extraordinary fire and brilliance,” the auction house said yesterday.
The asking price for the privately-owned gem is US$15-25 million, but if recent auctions are any guide it could fetch more.
When the world’s largest orange diamond went under the hammer last November at Christie’s in Geneva, it raked in US$35.5 million compared to its US$17-20 million price tag.
A Sotheby’s auction the next day saw the world’s largest pink diamond, known as the Pink Star, fetch US$83 million — US$23 million above the asking price.
The auction house was, however, forced last month to take back the Pink Star after the buyer defaulted on the payment.
Sotheby’s still holds the world record price for a diamond sale, even after the default. In November 2010 it sold another pink diamond — the 24.78-carat “Graff Pink” — for US$46 million in another auction in Geneva.
Among other jewels going on sale at next month’s auction is a 31.34-carat D coloured white gemstone called the Victory Diamond.
Named in honour of the Allied victory in World War II and once the property of famous jewellery collector Florence Gould, it is expected to fetch up to US$8 million. — AFP-Relaxnews
