Pink Star Diamond Welcomes Visitors To Sotheby’s New Dubai Gallery
Last Week’s Unveiling Of The New Office And Gallery Space Showcased Key Pieces From Upcoming Global Sales
Based in Dubai’s International Financial Centre, the exhibition’s top lots included the “Calibre 89”, Patek Philippe’s most complicated watch, and Middle Eastern Contemporary and Islamic art highlights.
Yet arguably stealing the show was the world’s most valuable polished diamond ever offered at auction – the 59.60-carat “Pink Star”. This week the auction powerhouse announced that the Internally Flawless Fancy Vivid Pink diamond will lead the upcoming Hong Kong Magnificent Jewels and Jadeite auction on 4 April, and is estimated to sell in excess of US $60milion.
Already regarded as one of the world’s great natural treasures, The Pink Star has received both the highest colour and clarity grades that can be awarded to pink diamonds by the Gemological Institute of America. The diamond was discovered in Africa in 1999 by De Beers before undergoing painstaking cutting and polishing over two years to be transformed into its current stunning form.
Katia Nounou, Head of Sotheby’s Dubai Office, wears “The Pink Star” diamond
Pink diamonds are noted for their rarity and beauty, particularly when they reach such significant sizes as The Pink Star. Sotheby’s already holds the current world record for a pink diamond sold at auction, when the “Graff Pink” – a 24.78-carat Fancy Intense Pink diamond – sold for US$ 46.2million to diamond titan Laurence Graff in 2010.
The Pink Star can next be viewed at Sotheby’s Hong Kong gallery before the auction, and hopes are high for its final selling price. David Bennett, Worldwide Chairman of Sotheby’s Jewellery Division, comments, “the extraordinary size of this 59.60-carat diamond, paired with its richness of colour, surpasses any known pink diamond recorded in history.”
The viewing was a fitting start to Sotheby’s activities in Dubai, which will see a regular calendar of exhibitions, talks and events expected to take place throughout the year. The space was unveiled in a ribbon-cutting ceremony during Dubai’s Art Week in the presence of H.H Sheikh Nahyan Mabarak Nayhan, Minister of Culture & Knowledge Development, and Tad Smith, Sotheby’s President and CEO.