A giant ruby of 55.22 carats, named Estrela de Fura, the largest ever auctioned, was sold Thursday in New York for $ 34.8 million, a record for this stone, announced the company Sotheby's. Carved and fashioned from a 101-carat rough stone discovered in September at a mine in Montepeuz, Mozambique, operated by Fura Gems, the jewel was the star of this jewelry sale that included 100 lots.
"Wonder of nature"
Offered at a starting price of $21 million, it was sold for $30 million, or $34.8 million with fees and commissions, to an anonymous telephone acquirer. A spokeswoman for Sotheby's told AFP that the buyer was a "private collector from the Middle East", without elaborating. The previous record belonged to a 25.59-carat Burmese ruby, sold for $30.33 million including Sotheby's in Geneva in 2015. The launch of this extremely rare jewel, exhibited in Hong Kong, Taipei, Singapore, Geneva, Dubai and New York, was an event for the world of jewelry.
"It's a true wonder of nature. Any ruby that comes out of the ground and ends up exceeding five carats as a polished ruby is something rare. A 10-carat ruby is very rare. 20 carats is almost unheard of. A ruby of more than 50 carats, it's unique in a lifetime," Quig Bruning, head of the jewelry department for the Americas at Sotheby's, told AFP.
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During the same auction session, "The Eternal Pink", a rare pink diamond of 10.57 carats, from the exploitation of a mine in Botswana, was sold for the same price of $ 34.8 million, a record per carat ($3.29 million) for a stone of this color. The current all-time record for the selling price of a pink diamond was reached in Hong Kong in 2017, when the "Pink Star" (59.60 carats) was purchased at $71.2 million.
