Sotheby’s sells diamond to Chinese retailer for record auction price of $71m
Zurich — Sotheby’s sold a 59.6-carat pink diamond for about $71m in Hong Kong, setting the world record for an auction price for any gem. The stone has an unusual distinction: it has attracted even higher bids in the past. Hong Kong-based jewellery retailer Chow Tai Fook had the HK$553m winning bid for the Pink Star after a five-minute contest that included three phone bidders, Sotheby’s said on Tuesday. The oval-shaped diamond dethroned the Oppenheimer Blue, which fetched $58m at Christie’s in May. Chow Tai Fook, founded in 1929, is the world’s largest jeweller, operating more than 2,000 jewelry and watch stores throughout China. In a quirk of auction history, the record price for the Pink Star is some $12m lower than the $83m offer Sotheby’s adjudicated it for in 2013. That sale collapsed because the buyer, diamond-cutter Isaac Wolf, never paid, and Sotheby’s had to reclaim the stone. Sotheby’s didn’t change its practices for accepting bids in this auction as buyer defaults are "e...
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