18-carat pink diamond reaps $28.8 million at Geneva auction

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A pear-shaped 18-carat pink diamond billed as a rarity sold at a Geneva auction for 28.4 million Swiss francs ($28.8 million), including fees and taxes, on the lower end of the expected range. The “Fortune Pink” fancy vivid pink stone, said to be the largest of its kind and shape to go on the block, headlined Christie’s latest Geneva sale of jewelry. It had been expected to fetch between $25 million and $35 million.

The auction house said an unidentified Asian buyer snapped up the diamond. Max Fawcett, head of Christie’s jewelry department in Geneva, said the stone with a strong, saturated pink color was mined in Brazil more than 15 years ago. He declined to identify its owner, but described the diamond as “a true miracle of nature.” Christie’s says the first pink diamonds ever recorded were found in India’s Golconda mines in the 16th century, before others turned up over the centuries in places like Africa, Australia, Brazil and Russia. The pink stone’s auction followed a showroom tour in New York, Shanghai, Singapore and Taiwan before its arrival in Geneva. (AP)

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