An impressive white diamond nicknamed “The Rock” will soon be up for auction and is expected to fetch up to $30 million. At 228.31 carats, the pear-shaped stone is nearly the size of an egg and is said by Christie’s to be the biggest white diamond to have ever been listed for sale at auction.
“The Rock will join the very best of legendary gemstones which have passed through Christie’s global salerooms since 1766,” Rahul Kadakia, international head of jewelry at Christie’s, said in a press release. “The market for diamonds is particularly vibrant and we are confident that this sensational gemstone will capture the attention of collectors across the globe this Spring season.”
A “unicorn” diamond —
In an earlier interview with Robb Report, Kadakia described the diamond as a “unicorn” in the industry, revealing the stone has only passed through three previous owners. Kadakia says Christie’s first heard about the diamond from its original owner approximately 20 years ago, when the auction house was involved in the first (private) sale of the stone.
Boasting a G color and VS1 clarity, the diamond is the largest existing D-Z color pear-shaped diamond ever graded by the Gemological Institute of America laboratory. It’ll break records at Christie’s too, surpassing both the size and possibly the sale price of a 163.41 carat diamond previously sold at the auction house in November 2017. The latter, once the largest diamond sold by Christie's, sold for $33,701,000 at Christie’s Geneva.
“The Rock” will headline the auction house’s Geneva Magnificent Jewels sale, unveiled this week via Christie’s Dubai. Prior to the auction’s conclusion, the stone will travel to New York City and Geneva for display, and you’ll be able to see it at the Rockefeller Plaza in April.
Priceless —
Extraordinarily rare in both size and value, the diamond will be highly coveted by a number of collectors — some of which may suffer from buyer’s remorse after the sale, Kadakia told Robb Report. “It took us 256 years to find [this diamond],” the auctioneer said, explaining that finding an equivalent would similarly take centuries. “Honestly, the stone has no price,” Kadakia added. To him — and those of us without a disposable $30 million — the diamond is priceless.
