Sotheby’s brought in a total of HKD 315.2 million ($40.2 million) at its Hong Kong auction Wednesday the 3th. as a 5-carat blue diamond fetched $13.8 million.
The price of the step-cut, fancy-vivid blue, named the Ai diamond, after the Chinese word for love, fell within its estimate of $12.5 million to $15.3 million. The final selling price translated to $2.8 million per carat.
Another blue diamond — a pear-shaped, fancy-intense blue weighing 3.47 carats — sold for $3.1 million at the Magnificent Jewels and Jadeite auction against a pre-sale estimate of $2.7 million to $3.6 million. A step-cut, 18.45-carat, D-color, VVS2-clarity diamond ring fetched $2.3 million, smashing its estimate of $1.3 million to $1.7 million.
However, only one piece out of a collection of jewels by designer Wallace Chan found a buyer: a pair of jade and diamond earrings, estimated at $70,160 to $108,430, which went for $87,700.
Several jewels by Harry Winston, Van Cleef & Arpels and Cartier also sold at the auction.
Sotheby’s sold 65% of all lots on offer, it said.
