A rare and exquisite gem is up for grabs.
The Eden Rose, a pink diamond ring, is anticipated to fetch $10 million at its auction on Tuesday.
Christie’s in New York is handling the sale, and the auction house is confident that the stone is worth its lofty valuation.
“The Eden Rose, which I’m holding in my hand is a round, brilliant, ten carat, fancy, intense pink, internally flawless diamond. It’s an old stone, and what’s special about it is that this cut, the round brilliant cut, is normally fashioned for white diamonds to bring out optimum brilliance in the stones. So to cut a stone into a round brilliant with color in it and see this intensity of color is very special,” says Rahul Kadakia, International Head of Jewelry for Christie’s Auction House.
“It’s an old South African diamond. And the source of color is the pressure in the stone. That’s what gives pink diamonds their color. The more pressure the stone has, the darker it gets. So this stone has a lot of pressure, which is even more special because it shows how well the cutter had to fashion the stone without damaging it in any way due to the stone’s pressure,” he adds.
The market for high-end colored gems is booming.
Last month, auction house Philips sold a stunning fancy vivid pink diamond ring for nearly 10.9 million Swiss Francs ($12.25 million).
In 2022, Sotheby’s sold the Williamson Pink Star, an extraordinary fancy vivid pink diamond and diamond ring, for over 453 million Hong Kong Dollars ($58 million).
“The mines are not producing colored diamonds in these sizes anymore. The production is done. So diamonds as you see them, especially colored diamonds, are going to get more and more scarce, more and more rare and more and more expensive,” says Kadakia.
“We’re looking at unicorns out here,” he adds.
This diamond is on display to the public during Christie’s Luxury Week at Christie’s Rockefeller Center in New York City from 7 to 10 June.
