Fifty-five facets, weighing 555.55 carats (111.11 grams): the Enigma, the largest natural black diamond in the world, was sold on Wednesday February 9, 3.16 million pounds sterling (3.75 million euros) in London, announced the auction house Sotheby's.
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The diamond, sold after an online auction that ended on Wednesday, was recorded in 2004 as the world's largest natural black diamond by specialists GIA and Gübelin and in 2006 as the world's largest cut diamond by Guinness Book of records.
Unlike classic diamonds which are extracted from the bowels of the earth, black diamonds are found more on the surface evoking "
possible extraterrestrial origins
", underlines Sotheby's.
"
This type of black diamond is thought to originate either from meteor impacts producing chemical vapor deposition or from extraterrestrial origin, from supernova explosions forming diamond-bearing asteroids that ultimately collide with the earth.
», Specifies the auction house.
They are now found exclusively in Brazil and the Central African Republic.
Their structure makes these diamonds among the hardest, so they are almost impossible to cut and polish.
The Enigma was purchased in the late 1990s and weighed over 800 carats in the rough and took over three years to cut into its current 55-facet shape.
Its shape is inspired by the Hamsa, a hand-shaped amulet sign of protection against the evil eye in the Middle East.
The price record for a diamond sold at auction is held by the "
Pink Star
" pink diamond, which sold for $71.2 million at an auction organized by Sotheby's in Hong Kong in 2017.