“The Rock”, a white diamond of 228.31 carats, the largest ever sold at auction, was sold on Thursday for 18.6 million Swiss francs (17.8 million euros), far from a record in its category.
The auctioneer lowered his hammer in a Geneva hotel after only a handful of minutes of bidding, in a room however full because of the expectations which had aroused this diamond larger than a golf ball.
Shaped like a “perfectly symmetrical” pear, “The Rock” white diamond is an exception for a stone of its size. “Often, with these large stones, we sacrifice part of the shape in order to keep the weight,” said Max Fawcett, head of the jewelry department at Christie’s in Geneva.
“The Rock” was extracted from a mine in South Africa in the early 2000s.
It was then sold by Christie’s as part of an over-the-counter sale to a private collector.
According to Max Fawcett, there is only a “handful” of diamonds of this ilk. The last record for a similar white diamond (163.41 carats) brought the stone to 33.7 million dollars (about 32 million euros: price including the buyer’s premium) – or 206,236 dollars per carat (195,628 euros), during a sale in November 2017 in Geneva.