The first half of the year will end in New York with Christie’s auction showing off some beautiful and unique items. The star of the sale is of course, The “Cullinan Dream” diamond. At 24.18 carat, it is the largest Fancy Intense Blue diamond to ever be sold at auction. It is valued at between $23 million and $29 million. Christie’s is doing a lot of PR to get potential bidders to appear both live and via phone and get the bidding war going. The success of the sale will largely rely on Investors and Collectors understanding of the unique features and the rarity effect of such diamond. Investors can only make informed decisions when they have enough information to rely on.

A close look at the 24.18 carat, “The Cullinan Dream” Diamond       Image credit: Christie’s

The 2nd highest valued item of the sale is a fraction of the “Cullinan Dream” when it comes to valuation. it is a massive 52.76 carat, Oval shape colorless diamond. it is a K color and a VS2 clarity. Other than size, nothing is really appealing. The color K is way out of our Investment spectrum and so is the Clarity of VS2.

The 52.76 carat, Oval shape, K color with VS2 Diamond     Image Credit: Christie’s

The next item in line also falls under Fancy Color Diamonds category. It is also a sizeable diamond.  A 51.06 carat, Fancy Intense Yellow with a VS2 clarity. Estimated to be sold between $1.3 million and $1.8 million or $25.5k to $35.2k per carat puts this diamond on the average current value for an Intense Yellow of this size. Fancy yellow diamonds and Fancy Intense Yellow diamonds have become more main stream simply because of supply. Obviously it is not every day that we find a 50ct+ Fancy Intense Yellow, but the price appreciation on such diamonds is still much lower pace than other, more significant colors, or depths of color, when it comes to yellow.

The 51.06 carat, Fancy Intense Yellow Diamond     Image Credit: Christie’s

The next item of interest to discuss would be the 0.98 carat, Fancy Intense Pink diamond with the SI2 clarity. This diamond is valued between $100k to 150k in total or $102k to $153k per carat. It is unfortunate that the diamond fell below 1ct as this will greatly impact value. Another important element is the fact that the certificate is dated April 4, 2016, which means it was cut recently, just enough time to get it to GIA and back on time to be given to the auction. This is another perfect article to show how a Brand name will help increase perceived value by the market. How can it be back from the GIA, and already been sold to Harry Winston and then onto the auction? unless it was resold much earlier with the guarantee of a sale to Harry Winston…

Image of the 0.98 carat, Fancy Intense Pink Diamond     Image Credit: Christie’s

Nothing else is really interesting. Christie’s is really relying on the Cullinan Dream to close off a season with a Bang. After this one, we will restart reviewing auctions in the fall.

Before that we will start reviewing potential diamond investment portfolios and other related subjects.

Feel free to comment either below in the comments area or in private via our contact page and let us know what subjects interests you and need our help to review.