On December 10th, Christie’s International in London sold a colored diamond for a whopping $24.3 million dollars! The diamond was once owned by King Philip IV of Spain. Christie's annouced this sale was a new record for the sale of any loose gem.
The diamond sold was a 35.56 carat fancy greyish-blue diamond. It has been owned by the same private collector since 1964 and was only expected to fetch bids of around 9 million pounds, but when the auction ended, the final sale price was 14.6 million pounds instead.
Francois Graff, the new owner and of Graff Diamonds intends to re-cut the gem in order to get the slightly chipped gem a flawless clarity grade and more depth in order to give the stone an appearance of a deeper face up color. “We’ll lose a few carats, but nothing too substantial,” said Graff.
King Philip (1605-1665) gave the stone to his daughter, the Infanta Margarita Teresa, as part of the dowry of her marriage in 1667 to the Emperor Leopold I of Austria. In the 18th century, it entered the crown jewels of the Bavarian royal family, and has been known as the “Wittelsbach Diamond” ever since, Christie’s said.
0 comments:
Post a Comment