A rare, fancy, vivid pink diamond has set a new world record for the highest price per carat for a diamond sold at auction.
The 11.15-carat Williamson Pink Star, sold for $49.9 million at auction in Hong Kong on Friday. The jewel was purchased by an undisclosed buyer.
Certified as “internally flawless” and “fancy vivid” — the highest grade of coloured diamond available — the piece sold by Sotheby's is named after another pink stone gifted to the late Queen Elizabeth II.
It is only the second pink diamond of this calibre and weight to come to auction.
Yielded from a 32-carat rough diamond at the Williamson Diamond Mine in Tanzania, the gem was on display at Sotheby’s Dubai in September, where experts had predicted it would sell for more than $21m.
The final asking price fetched in Hong Kong was more than double those estimates — the diamond's total sale price was just shy of $50m, or $57.73m inclusive of auction fees.
Wenhao Yu, chairman of jewellery and watches at Sotheby’s Asia, said: “The discovery of a gem-quality pink diamond of any size is an extremely rare occurrence. Driven by a limited supply and rising demand, prices for top-quality large pink diamonds over 5 carats have increased exponentially over the past decade, serendipitously setting the scene for the appearance now of this one-of-a-kind stone.”
Only two fancy vivid pink diamonds are known to be larger than this one, and of those only one has ever appeared at auction.
The CTF Pink Star, an oval-shaped fancy vivid pink stone weighing a monumental 59.60 carats, was sold at auction in April 2017 for $71.2m, setting a world record for the “most expensive diamond, gemstone or jewel”, that still stands five years later.
The other stone will never come on to the market, as it was gifted to Queen Elizabeth II as a wedding present in 1947. Weighing 23.60 carats, it was presented by John Thoburn Williamson, the owner of the Tanzanian mine where it was unearthed.
Silent Hill f
Publisher: Konami
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Rating: 4.5/5
Meatless Days
Sara Suleri, with an introduction by Kamila Shamsie
Penguin
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4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
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About Okadoc
Date started: Okadoc, 2018
Founder/CEO: Fodhil Benturquia
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Healthcare
Size: (employees/revenue) 40 staff; undisclosed revenues recording “double-digit” monthly growth
Funding stage: Series B fundraising round to conclude in February
Investors: Undisclosed
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Haemoglobin disorders explained
Thalassaemia is part of a family of genetic conditions affecting the blood known as haemoglobin disorders.
Haemoglobin is a substance in the red blood cells that carries oxygen and a lack of it triggers anemia, leaving patients very weak, short of breath and pale.
The most severe type of the condition is typically inherited when both parents are carriers. Those patients often require regular blood transfusions - about 450 of the UAE's 2,000 thalassaemia patients - though frequent transfusions can lead to too much iron in the body and heart and liver problems.
The condition mainly affects people of Mediterranean, South Asian, South-East Asian and Middle Eastern origin. Saudi Arabia recorded 45,892 cases of carriers between 2004 and 2014.
A World Health Organisation study estimated that globally there are at least 950,000 'new carrier couples' every year and annually there are 1.33 million at-risk pregnancies.
Scoreline
Ireland 16 (Tries: Stockdale Cons: Sexton Pens: Sexton 3)
New Zealand 9 (Pens: Barrett 2 Drop Goal: Barrett)
Other ways to buy used products in the UAE
UAE insurance firm Al Wathba National Insurance Company (AWNIC) last year launched an e-commerce website with a facility enabling users to buy car wrecks.
Bidders and potential buyers register on the online salvage car auction portal to view vehicles, review condition reports, or arrange physical surveys, and then start bidding for motors they plan to restore or harvest for parts.
Physical salvage car auctions are a common method for insurers around the world to move on heavily damaged vehicles, but AWNIC is one of the few UAE insurers to offer such services online.
For cars and less sizeable items such as bicycles and furniture, Dubizzle is arguably the best-known marketplace for pre-loved.
Founded in 2005, in recent years it has been joined by a plethora of Facebook community pages for shifting used goods, including Abu Dhabi Marketplace, Flea Market UAE and Arabian Ranches Souq Market while sites such as The Luxury Closet and Riot deal largely in second-hand fashion.
At the high-end of the pre-used spectrum, resellers such as Timepiece360.ae, WatchBox Middle East and Watches Market Dubai deal in authenticated second-hand luxury timepieces from brands such as Rolex, Hublot and Tag Heuer, with a warranty.
The biog
Name: Atheja Ali Busaibah
Date of birth: 15 November, 1951
Favourite books: Ihsan Abdel Quddous books, such as “The Sun will Never Set”
Hobbies: Reading and writing poetry
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
