CTF PINK STAR 59.60 carat
Pink Star, a 59.60 carat
oval mixed-cut fancy vivid pink internally flawless diamond
Made by: Africa 1999
Sold for: USD 71.2 million
Auction house: Sotheby's auction in Hong Kong
Sale date: April 2017
Seller: De Beers
Buyer: Renowned jeweller Chow Tai Fook
From Sotheby's:
On 4 April 2017 in Hong Kong, Sotheby’s set a new world auction record for any diamond or jewel when the Pink Star, a 59.60-carat oval mixed-cut Fancy Vivid Pink Internally Flawless diamond, sold for HK$553 million / US$71.2 million. The Pink Star was acquired by renowned jeweller Chow Tai Fook, with the winning telephone bid placed by Dr. Henry Cheng Kar-Shun, Chairman of the company. The Pink Star has been renamed CTF PINK STAR in memory of the late Dr. Cheng Yu-Tung, father of the current chairman and founder of Chow Tai Fook, and commemorates the esteemed brand’s 88th anniversary.
The CTF PINK STAR, a 59.60-carat oval mixed-cut pink diamond, is the largest Internally Flawless Fancy Vivid Pink diamond that the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) has ever graded. It has received the highest colour and clarity grades from the GIA for pink diamonds and has been found to be part of the rare subgroup comprising less than 2% of all gem diamonds – known as Type IIa: stones in this group are chemically the purest of all diamond crystals and often have extraordinary optical transparency. Mined by De Beers in Africa in 1999, the 132.5-carat rough diamond was meticulously cut and polished over a period of two years and transformed into this stunning gemstone.