
Photo courtesy Sotheby’s
The Magnificent Jewels and Noble Jewels sale at Sotheby’s wrapped up on May 15, bringing in $109.4 million from buyers.
One standout piece, the historic Farnese Blue diamond, drew $8.5 million—well above its estimated auction price of $6.7 million. Weighing 6.16 carats, the diamond previously spent 300 years in the possession of European royalty.
This was not the only piece to perform well. Two rings featuring fancy colour diamonds set record prices for fancy light purplish pink and fancy vivid purplish pink diamonds, respectively, with the former selling for $3.3 million and the latter fetching $3 million.
A third piece of jewellery—a pendant featuring pink sapphire and diamond—broke the price record for pink sapphire, bringing in $2.9 million.