(New York) A giant ruby of 55.22 carats, called Estrela de Fura, the largest ever at auction, was sold Thursday in New York for 34.8 million dollars, a record for this stone, announced the Sotheby’s company.
Cut and shaped in a rough stone of 101 carats discovered in September in a mine of Montepeuz, in Mozambique, operated by the company Fura Gems, the jewel was a star during this sale of jewels which included 100 lots.
Proposed at a starting price of 21 million dollars, it was awarded 30 million dollars, or 34.8 million with fees and commissions, to an anonymous purchaser by telephone.
A spokeswoman for Sotheby’s told AFP that the buyer was a “private collector from the Middle East”, without further details.
The previous record belonged to a 25.59-carat Burmese ruby, sold for $30.33 million including fees by Sotheby’s in Geneva in 2015.
The marketing of this extremely rare jewel, exhibited in Hong Kong, Taipei, Singapore, Geneva, Dubai and New York, was an event for the world of jewellery.
“It is a true wonder of nature. Any ruby that comes out of the ground and ends up exceeding five carats as a polished ruby is something of a rarity. A 10 carat ruby is very rare. 20 carats is almost unheard of. A ruby of more than 50 carats is once in a lifetime, “explained to AFP the head of the jewelry department for the Americas at Sotheby’s, Quig Bruning.
During the same auction session, “The Eternal Pink”, a rare pink diamond of 10.57 carats, resulting from the exploitation of a mine in Botswana, was sold for the same price of 34.8 million dollars. , a record per carat ($3.29 million) for a stone of this color.
The current all-time high for the sale price of a pink diamond was reached in Hong Kong in 2017, when the “Pink Star” (59.60 carats) was bought at 71.2 million dollars.