Sold: The World’s Most Expensive Earrings

For the equivalent of about 5,000 Chanel Bags

The Apollo and Artemis diamonds have been sold for $57.4 million. The blue and pink pear-shaped diamonds were sold separately but bought by the same anonymous bidder, who snapped up the 14.54-carat blue Apollo diamond for over $42 million and the 16.00 carat pink Artemis for over $15 million.

Worldwide chairman of Sotheby’s International Jewellery Division, David Dennett, said, “It has been a privilege for Sotheby’s to be entrusted with the superb ‘Apollo Blue’ and ‘Artemis Pink’, which have now been renamed. I am delighted that the stones will remain together as earrings.” Whilst the identity of the buyer remains unknown, the auction house did confirm that the earrings have been renamed by their new owner to “The Memory of Autumn Leaves” for the blue diamond earring and “The Dream of Autumn Leaves” for its pink sister.

Last chance to see the spectacular Apollo and Artemis #Diamonds before our evening sale of Magnificent #Jewels at #mandarinorientalgeneva. The most valuable earrings ever to come to auction, the Fancy Vivid Blue and Fancy Intense Pink diamonds are exceptional in their own right but when combined enter a class of their own. #SothebysGeneva #diamonds #SothebysJewels #sothebys #mandarinorientalgeneva

A post shared by Sotheby's (@sothebys) on May 16, 2017 at 1:42am PDT

Although the $57.4 million final figure is a record for a pair of earrings, the final bid was actually short on what was expected, with the diamonds carrying an estimate of up to $68 million. Both gems are exceptionally rare, with less than 0.1% of diamonds having any blue in them at all. The Geneva-based auction, where the earrings were the standout offerings, sold nearly 400 pieces of jewellery that reaped over $150 million altogether.