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The diamond was presented by Sotheby's in London ahead of the
auction in Hong Kong on April 4.
In November 2013, a Geneva auction of the stone fetched a world
record $83 million but the buyer, New York-based diamond cutter
Isaac Wolf, could not pay up and defaulted. (See the story
"Sotheby's acquires "Pink Star" diamond after buyer defaults"
http://www.reuters.com/article/sothebys-pinkstar-idUSL3N0LX2KN20140228)
However, after some more successful auctions of colored diamonds
in recent years, the auction house said that now was a good time
to try again.
"The last few years we've had colored diamonds perform extremely
well, many new records been created at auction for the colored
diamonds, pinks and blues mainly, so we thought it was a good
time to bring it to the market," David Bennett, worldwide
Chairman of Sotheby's Jewellery Division, told Reuters.
In 2015 the "Blue Moon of Josephine" sold for $48.5 million in
Geneva. At 12.03 carats, it set a price-per-carat record.
"The Pink Star" is the largest Internally Flawless Fancy Vivid
Pink diamond ever graded by the Gemological Institute of America
(GIA), the auction house said, yet the sparkling stone is still
small enough to fit onto a ring.
Sotheby's said that the mixed-cut diamond was initially mined by
De Beers in 1999 in Botswana as a 132.5 carat rough diamond
before being cut and polished.
Its refined form is now set to be the most valuable polished
diamond ever offered at auction.
"The extraordinary size of this 59.60-carat diamond, paired with
its richness of color, surpasses any known pink diamond record
in history," Bennett said.
Bennett said the current record for a pink diamond was held by
the "Graff Pink". At 24.78 carats it is half the size of The
Pink Star and was sold in Geneva for $46.2 million in 2010.
(Additional reporting by Jayson Mansaray; editing by Stephen
Addison)
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