Rare Spirit of the Rose purple-pink diamond is a cut above the rest
At 14.83 carats, the world’s largest vivid purple-pink diamond to ever appear at auction will be available to bid upon in the Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels and Noble Jewels auction, in Geneva and online, on Wednesday, November 11.
In keeping with the tradition of assigning romantic names to rock-sized diamonds – think the Blue Moon of Josephine and the Kohinoor (Mountain of Light) – the internally flawless pink diamond goes by the moniker The Spirit of the Rose, named after a popular Russian ballet, Le Spectre de la Rose.
The stone was cut from the largest pink crystal ever mined in Russia. The 27.85-carat clear pink rough diamond was called Nijinsky, a nod to ballet dancer and choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky.
The oval-cut shape of the diamond bestows it with numerous facets, all the better to show off its rose-petal hue. It took master cutters from diamond exploration company Alrosa a year to transform The Spirit of Rose into its final polished form.
Sotheby’s has timed the sale to coincide with the closure of the Argyle mine in Australia, which has been the only consistent source of rare pink diamonds since the 1980s, but faced rapid depletion in recent years. Given the limited supply of large pink diamonds, the demand for such stones has risen in the past decade.
“Only 1 per cent of all pink diamonds are larger than 10 carats and only 4 per cent of all pink diamonds are graded ‘fancy vivid’ for their rich colour,” says Gary Schuler, worldwide chairman of the jewellery division at Sotheby’s.
Benoit Repellin, head of Sotheby’s Geneva’s Magnificent Jewels auction, adds: “Pink diamonds make up five of the 10 most valuable diamonds ever sold at auction. With the supply of these beautiful stones becoming ever more limited, they are likely to continue to become even more prized.”
Estimated to command more than 10 times the price of their colourless counterparts owing to scarcity, pink diamonds are a worthy investment for jewellery connoisseurs and serious collectors alike. As with all diamonds, colour, cut, clarity and the number of carats greatly influence rate and resale value. Of these four factors, colour takes top honours when it comes to a pink stone. In fact, hue is so crucial in this niche market that it’s even recommended collectors sacrifice size for a better colour quality.
At just a little more than 14 carats, the Spirit of the Rose is by no means the biggest pink diamond around. Yet it has received the highest colour and clarity grades from the Gemological Institute of America. It is also part of the rare subgroup known as Type IIa. These comprise less than 2 per cent of all gem-quality diamonds, and indicate a stone that is chemically the purest of all diamond crystals. Accordingly, the Sotheby’s acquisition is estimated to claim between $23 million and $38m at auction.
Provence is another aspect to look out for when it comes to investing in diamonds. Historically famous stones include the Agra, a 32-carat stone with links to Mughal ruler Babur; the Hortensia, a 20.53-carat diamond that was part of the Crown Jewels of France before entering the collection of the Louvre in Paris; and the Williamson, a 23.60-carat rock given as a wedding present to Queen Elizabeth II.
Some other famous pink diamonds that have come to market in recent years include the 59.60-carat Pink Star, which became the most expensive diamond to sell at auction last April, going for a staggering $71m. Then there is the 19.07-carat Le Grand Mazarin from India’s famed Golconda mine, which sold for a little over $14m; and the 24.78-carat Graff Pink that went for $46.2m.
The oval-cut shape of the diamond bestows it with numerous facets, all the better to show off its rosepetal hue