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LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) – “The Enigma”, the world’s largest known cut diamond at 555 carats, went under the hammer in London on Wednesday for £3.16 million ($4.3 million, 3.8 million euros) having recently gone on display for the first time. The rare black, or carbanado, diamond is believed to have been created when a meteorite or an asteroid hit Earth more than 2.6 billion years ago. The 555.55 carat, 55-faced diamond reached £3.16 million, excluding the […]
by Claire DOYEN KWALHATHI, South Africa (AFP) — Single mother Lihle Magudulela spat out a mouthful of dirt as she sucked on a stone dug up from a hillside in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province, convinced she might have found a diamond. Thousands have flocked to the outskirts of KwaHlathi village, more than 300 kilometres (186 miles) southeast of Johannesburg, after a cattle herder last week unearthed a handful of unidentified crystal-like stones. News of the […]
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — A flawless 102-carat oval diamond will head to auction on October 5 in Hong Kong at Sotheby’s. The auction house has not given an official price estimate for the egg-shaped stone of exactly 102.39 carats, which has the highest color grade, D, for a white diamond and is rated Type IIA for its chemical purity and exceptional transparency. Quig Bruning, Sotheby’s New York head of jewelry, said the house […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — An exceptionally rare pink diamond of nearly 19 carats fetched 50.3 million Swiss francs ($50 million, 44 million euros) at auction in Geneva Tuesday, Christie’s said, setting a new per-carat record for a stone of its kind. The Pink Legacy, which once belonged to the Oppenheimer family who for decades ran the De Beers diamond-mining company, was snapped up by American luxury brand Harry Winston, part of the Swiss Swatch group. […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russian diamond giant Alrosa will review its annual production plan after an accident at a key mine, the company said Sunday as a search went on for eight missing workers. “A review of the company’s production parameters will be conducted by August 19… as a result of the accident,” Alrosa president Sergei Ivanov said, in remarks distributed by the company. On Friday water broke into the Mir mine in the Sakha […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia’s diamond giant Alrosa said Friday that one of its mines in eastern Siberia has suffered flooding with around 150 miners inside. Alrosa, Russia’s largest diamond producer, said in a statement on its website that water had broken through into the mine at around 4:30 pm (0730 GMT), while there were “more than 100 people” inside. The company later increased the figure to 148 in statements to Russian news wires. It […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (Reuters) — Two dazzling pink and blue pear-shaped diamonds have together sold for 57,118,000 Swiss Francs ($57,425,000) to a private buyer at Sotheby’s auction house on Tuesday (May 16). Sotheby’s said the Apollo and Artemis stones are “by far the most important pair of earrings ever offered at auction.” They were offered to buyers separately at the auction house’s Magnificent Jewels and Noble Jewels sale in Geneva, but were purchased by the same […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (Reuters) — Two dazzling pink and blue pear-shaped diamonds are together expected to fetch close to $70 million when they go under the hammer next month. Sotheby’s said the Apollo and Artemis stones are “by far the most important pair of earrings ever offered at auction”. They will be offered to buyers separately at the auction house’s May 16 Magnificent Jewels and Noble Jewels sale in Geneva. The 14.54 carat Apollo Blue […]
AUGSBURG, Germany (Reuters) — German scientists say they have created the world’s largest disclosed synthetic diamond. Researchers at Ausgburg University have developed a process for producing synthetic diamonds through chemical vapour deposition at around one tenth of atmospheric pressure. Hydrocarbon molecules are deposited on an iridium base and the diamond “wafer” grows layer by layer. Twenty six years after the research began in 1991, the scientists in Augsburg have created a single 155 carat […]
by Elaine Yu HONG KONG, China (AFP) — A giant diamond named the “Pink Star” broke the world record for a gemstone sold at auction when it fetched $71.2 million in Hong Kong on Tuesday. The 59.60-carat “Pink Star,” the largest in its class ever graded by the Gemological Institute of America, was sold to the city’s Chow Tai Fook jewellery chain. “Sotheby’s Hong Kong is very proud to have this record,” its Asia chairman […]
by Alexandre Marchand Agence France Presse NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — Many precious stones have a blood-soaked history, but a new book reveals the world’s most famous diamond the Koh-i-Noor surpasses them all, with a litany of horrors that rivals “Game of Thrones”. The Koh-i-Noor (“Mountain of Light”), now part of the British Crown Jewels, has witnessed the birth and the fall of empires across the Indian subcontinent, and remains the subject of a bitter ownership […]
GENEVE, Switzerland (Reuters) — Coloured diamonds fetched high prices on Wednesday (November 16) at Sotheby’s semi-annual jewel sale, with rare and large pink and blue stones finding new owners who paid in the double-digit millions for “rare treasures”. A step-cut fancy intense pink diamond weighing 17.07 carats, set in a ring between triangular diamonds, netted $20.8 million, far exceeding its estimate of $12 to $15 million, to become the top lot. “The […]
