Christie’s Successful Geneva Magnificent Jewels Sells Unique Fancy Color Diamonds

on July 22, Christie’s sold the majority of Fancy Color Diamonds, and ended the evening with sales totalling $43.3 million (CHF 40.01 million @ 1.08 exchange rate). Thirty eight items went unsold and 2 were withdrawn, while the rest was sold. The majority of the Fancy Color Diamonds went to new owners.

The 5.37 carat, Fancy Vivid Blue diamond by Reza had a hammer price of CHF 7,450,000 but after commissions, fees and exchange rate, was sold for $9.43 million or $1.756 million per carat. It was sold for less than the typical Vivid Blue that weighs this much and with an Internally Flawless clarity.

The 104.04 carat Fancy Intense Yellow diamond was sold for $2.608 million or $25k per carat. This is not a strong price for Fancy Intense Yellow Diamonds. There is a strong possibility that the color was weak. There have been Fancy Intense Yellow Diamonds that were sold for also $40k per carat. 

The 41.80 carat Fancy Vivid Yellow Diamond bracelet by CARTIER ended up selling for $2.6 million or $62.4k per carat on average. There are 12 Fancy Vivid Yellow Diamonds weighing between 2.20 carats to 5.40 carats and between VVS2 and SI1 clarity. I believe the buyer overpaid for this piece of jewelry as an investment. An investor can easily collect similar shapes Fancy Vivid Yellow diamonds that can recreate such a bracelet and end up with a much lower cost.

The 30.01 carat, Fancy Intense Yellow, Heart Shape diamond by GRAFF was sold for $742k or $24.7k per carat. It was valued between $583k and $689k in total. As we have stated, it sold for more.

The 2.01 carat, Fancy Purple, ended up selling for $392k or $195k per carat. This was in line with the $318k to $530k total estimate by Christie’s.

The 1.52 carat, Fancy Pink with Internally Flawless clarity was sold for $121,500 total or $80k per carat, after an evaluation between $62.7k to $77k per carat. It surpassed the high valuation as we reported it.

All the unsold items were removed from the site (as of the date of this publishing); a true disappointment and very low transparency with the market. I would have expected Christie’s to leave all items listed on their website, even if they went unsold or removed. They should have remained with a note saying “removed” and “unsold”.