The most expensive gemstone sold at auctions.

The beginning of 2017 was marked by the price record, making the Pink Star diamond sold for $71.2 million (including buyer’s premium) at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong, the most expensive gemstone ever sold. A revolution among rarest and most valuable gems.

The 59.60 carat pink diamond is rated as Internally Flawless, which means that it has no internal inclusions. Its “Fancy Vivid” colour rating is the highest, thus the most valuable, possible grade for colored diamonds.

The Pink Star was mined by De Beers in Africa in 1999 and was cut from 132.5 carat rough diamond.

The diamond was sold to jewellery retailer Chow Tai Fook, who later gave a new name to the diamond bought, the CTF Pink.

The Pink Star diamond beaten the previous record held by the 14.62 carat Fancy Vivid blue diamond, The Oppenheimer Blue, which was sold at Christie’s Geneva in May 2016 for $57.5 millions.

Still the Oppenheimer Blue stays the most expensive fancy blue diamond in the world, after it broke the record of a 12.03 carat Fancy Vivid blue diamond, the Blue Moon of Josephine, which was sold at Sotheby’s Geneva in November 2015 for $48 million.

At the same time the Blue Moon of Josephine is still the most expensive price-per-carat gemstone. Sold for $48 million, it makes it worth over $4 million per carat, which is even higher than price-per-carat of the Pink Star diamond.

Sotheby’s also holds an auction record for the most expensive yellow diamond sold. In May, 2014, a 100.09 carat Fancy Vivid yellow VVS1 diamond, the Graff Vivid Yellow, was sold for $16,347,847.

The largest and the most valuable orange diamond, a 14.82 carat Fancy Vivid orange diamond, the Orange, was sold at Christie’s in November 2013 for over $35.5 million.

Another record breaker, a 5.03 carat rectangular-cut Fancy Vivid green VS2 diamond, “Aurora Green“, was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong in May 2016, for more than $16.8 million. It was bought by Chow Tai Fook Jewellery, the current owner of the Pink Star diamond.

Out of all the fancy color diamonds, the rarest ones are red. Despite its relatively small size, 2.09 carat, a heart-shaped Fancy red diamond was sold in November 2014 at Christie’s Hong Kong for nearly $5.1 million.

Among the colorless diamonds the most valuable diamond and at the same time the biggest diamond ever sold is the 118.28 carat D Flawless diamond, sold in October 2013 at Sotheby’s Hong Kong for $30,680,000.

Colored gemstones, in particular Sapphires, Rubies and Emeralds, also set numerous records at the auctions.

The most valuable sapphire so far is a 392.52 carat cushion-shaped sapphire, “The Blue Belle of Asia” from Sri Lanka, set in a diamond necklace. It was sold in November 2014 at Christie’s for $17.7 million.

On May 2015, a 25.59 carat Burmese ruby, “The Sunrise Ruby“, set a new world auction record for rubies, both as the most expensive total price and price-per-carat. It was sold at Sotheby’s for $30.3 million, almost three times more than the previous most valued ruby, the Graff ruby.

“The Sunrise Ruby” was named after a poem by Rumi, a 13th century Persian poet, who gave the most powerful description to the beautiful stone of ruby:
“… a ruby held up to the sunrise.
Is it still a stone, or a world made of redness? It has no resistance to sunlight. The ruby and the sunrise are one…”

The most expensive emerald was sold at Christie’s New York auction as a part of a collection owned by Elizabeth Taylor. A 23.46 carat Colombian emerald set in a diamond pendant brooch hit $6,578,500 or $280,000 price-per-carat, making it the most valuable emerald in the world.

Not only diamonds and the “Big Three” gemstones – Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald – are breaking auction records. Pearls, spinel, jadeite, alexandrite, and other gems are also quite popular among buyers. Considering the upcoming May 2017 auctions in Hong Kong, most expensive gemstone and rarest and most valuable gems will be featured and probably new auction records will be achieved.