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Hong Kong - A ring with a chickpea-sized pink diamond has fetched a record price of $10.8m at an auction in Hong Kong, Christie's said on Wednesday.
The auction house said the five-carat jewel, dubbed Vivid Pink, set a per-carat world record for a diamond at the Tuesday evening sale, beating a Hong Kong property tycoon's $10.5m winning bid for a seven-carat blue diamond in Geneva earlier this year.
An unidentified Asian buyer made the record-smashing bid on Vivid Pink, the highest-priced lot at Christie's sale this week.
Vivid Pink's pre-sale estimate was between $5m and$7m.
"This definitely went above its high estimate, but that is what the market thought it was worth," a Christie's spokesperson told AFP.
"We think this will probably hold for quite some time - it's a very strong price."
Asian jewellery buyers have become "an extremely important group" for the auction house, she said.
"They are very active, very sophisticated and they're buying at the very high end."
The most expensive jewel sold at auction remains a 30-carat gem that fetched $24m in London last December, the spokesperson said.
- AFP
