Russia’s most expensive diamond ever polished fails to sell at auction
Moscow — The most expensive diamond ever polished in Russia, named Dynasty after the Romanov-era Imperial Court, failed to sell at auction. Alrosa said it didn’t receive a high enough offer for the 51.4-carat gem in a November 29 online auction. The stone has the best so-called "triple excellence cutting quality", a characteristic Alrosa says is shared by less than 1% of all gems ever cut. Other gems in the collection, named Sheremetyev, Orlov, Vorontsov and Usupov after Russia’s noble families, sold at an average premium of 30% to reserve prices, Alrosa said, without disclosing prices. The company now plans to hold a separate auction to sell Dynasty. As many as 130 bidders had registered to buy the stones, cut from a 179-carat rough diamond found in 2015. Alrosa was hoping to get at least $10m for the whole collection, CEO Sergei Ivanov said in August. The auction is a rarity for the Russian miner, which specialises in digging up diamonds, but not polishing them. Ivanov, who took t...
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