'Extremely rare' pink diamond linked to Queen Elizabeth sells for record price

A rare vivid pink diamond with a royal link has sold for a record-breaking amount after it went for double its estimated price at an auction in Hong Kong. 

The 11.15-carat Williamson Pink Star diamond was sold to an undisclosed private collector in the US after it went under the hammer in Sotheby's Hong Kong. 

Less than three percent of diamonds submitted to Gemological Institute of America (GIA) are classified as coloured diamonds, and of those only five percent are pink - meaning this particular stone is incredibly rare. 

Tobias Kormind, the managing director of 77 Diamonds, said the expensive rock’s link to late monarch Queen Elizabeth likely pushed up its value. 

Sotheby's

The diamond is named after a similar pink diamond that was gifted to Queen Elizabeth II as a wedding present. 

The diamond sold for a whopping £52m ($58m) - setting a world record for the highest price per carat for a diamond sold at auction. 

Kormind said: "This is an astounding result, proving the resilience of top diamonds in a shaky economy. 

“When you consider an alluring link to Queen Elizabeth, the rising prices for pink diamonds thanks to their increasing rarity, and the backdrop of an unstable global economy.

“Some of the world’s highest quality diamonds have seen prices double over the last 10 years.”

As well as being exceptionally rare, pink diamonds have an air of mystery about them as no one knows exactly how they end up pink geologically.

Guy Bell / Alamy Stock Photo

Sotheby’s said: “While nitrogen and boron are responsible for the vivid hues of yellow and blue diamonds respectively, there is no evidence that pink diamonds receive their colour from trace elements.

“Rather, the crystal structure of the stone selectively absorbs light as a result of an idiosyncratic lattice defect, which results in an unusual arrangement of atoms in the crystal. These happy anomalies occasionally cause pink graining in the diamond crystal – a perfectly brilliant display of imperfection.”

amer ghazzal / Alamy Stock Photo

According to the auction house, the gemstone is ‘the second internally flawless fancy vivid pink diamond weighing over 10 carats to be offered at auction’ the first was also sold by Sotheby’s back in 2017. 

Wenhao Yu, the chair of jewellery and watches at Sotheby’s Asia, said: “The discovery of a gem-quality pink diamond of any size is an extremely rare occurrence, something that – with the recent closure of the Argyle mine – seemed, until recently, highly improbable.”

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