Huge Yellow Diamond At Auction

November 15th 2011 saw the sale by Sotherby’s auction house of Geneva, Switzerland, of a rare pear shaped yellow diamond. Currently referred to a as the ‘Sundrop Diamond’, the winning bidder has the rarely available opportunity to rename the diamond if they wish.

The largest diamond of it’s kind, weighing in at a mighty 110.3 Karats, the diamond has been graded by gemstone experts as ‘Fancy Vivid Yellow’- the highest grading. The jewel was sold by Cora International, a mining company which discovered the yellow diamond at one of their mines in South Africa in 2010.

Also sold at the Auction were a number of other important Gemstones, foremost amongst which was a suite of jewels comprising a necklace, brooch and earrings previously the property of the wife of the Ottoman Empire’s Sultan Abdul Hamid II in the 19th Century.

Despite the current economic climate the world market for high end luxury items remains healthy according to the head of Sotherby’s jewelry division David Bennett. Only last year Sotherby’s sold a 24.78 Karat ‘Fancy Intense’ pink diamond for a record $46 million.

A yellow diamond of this type and quality is one of a kind.