Christie’s is in the pink with diamond auction

THE Pink Legacy, a large pink diamond valued at up to US$50 million, is set to go under the hammer at Christie’s in Geneva tomorrow.

At nearly 19 carats, the vividly colored gem is extraordinary, said Jean-Marc Lunel, an international jewelry specialist at Christie’s.

“If you consider that most pink diamonds weigh less than a carat, it is really something,” he said.

The rectangular-cut diamond has been graded “fancy vivid” — the highest possible grade of color intensity.

Christie’s said that only four vivid pink diamonds of over 10 carats have ever been offered for sale at auction.

One of them, the 15-carat Pink Promise, was sold last November at an auction in Hong Kong for US$32.5 million.

The Pink Legacy, set to headline Christie’s annual Magnificent Jewels auction tomorrow, used to belong to the Oppenheimer family, which for decades ran the De Beers diamond mining company, but Christie’s refused to say who the current owner was.

It was discovered in a South African mine around a century ago, Lunel said.

“It was probably cut in the 1920s,” he said, adding that it had not been altered since.

The classic rectangular cut is traditionally used for white stones, but is rare for pink diamonds.