Christie’s Will Seal It’s Mid- Year In An Interesting New York Auction

On June 19, Christie’s will hold its final auction for the first half of the year. It is quite an interesting auction overall; focusing on items from Maharajas & Mughal Magnificence.

The Pink Golconda Diamond is being offered. It is a 10.46 carat, Light Pink diamond with a VVS1 clarity, but can be slightly re-polished to reach an Internally Flawless clarity. It is a type IIa diamond from Golconda in India. It is a set in a ring designed by JAR. It is valued between $1.5 million and $2.5 million. It is also nice to see that Christie’s are revealing some provenance. This same diamond was sold at a Sotheby’s auction in New York on December 9, 2010, lot 467.

It is interesting to see that back in 2010, it was valued between $1.4 million to $1.6 million but ended up selling for $2,266,500 ( 216.6k per carat, which includes a 20% buyer’s premium). Now, almost 9 years later, it is valued in the same lower range but the higher range is much higher. My take on this is that Christie’s is being cautious with current market conditions. If we consider a bare minimum of 6% average annual return for this acquisition to make sense from an investment approach, it would have to sell for above $3.8 million in total ($363k per carat), before commission.

Another old mine, Fancy Color Diamond, is being offered. The 7.56 carat, Light Pink diamond and VS1 clarity is being valued at between $400k to $600k in total or $53k to $79k per carat.

The “Mirror Of Paradise” diamond is also a rare, but is a colorless diamond. It is a 52.58 carat, D color, Internally Flawless Diamond and the interesting part is that it is also from the Golconda mine. It is valued between $7 million to $10 million or $133k to $190k per carat. I believe that the only reason it is valued at this range is due to its Golconda Provenance. It is an old mine that no longer produces diamonds, but once upon a time, it produced the best diamonds.