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163-Carat Diamond Sells for $34 Million, Still Disappoints

A flawless 163-carat clear diamond fetched about $34 million at Christie’s in Geneva.

163-Carat Diamond Sells for $34 Million, Still Disappoints
(Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- A flawless 163-carat clear diamond fetched $34 million at Christie’s in Geneva -- not enough to dispell concerns about the health of the market.

The stone, the centerpiece of a gem-studded necklace designed by De Grisogono founder Fawaz Gruosi, was the largest of its kind ever auctioned. It’s 40 percent bigger than a diamond Sotheby’s sold in 2013 for only $3 million less, said Tobias Kormind, head of London-based online jeweler 77Diamonds.com.

“I am disappointed that the Art of De Grisogono didn’t sell for a more dazzling price,” he said in a statement. “This is a worrying sign for the top end of the diamond market.”

A team of 10 specialists in New York cut the jewel from a rough 404-carat stone discovered last year in Angola, the biggest diamond ever found in that country. The necklace is made of 18 diamonds on one side and two rows of pear-shaped emeralds on the other. It took more than 1,700 hours to create.

Christie’s sold 27 lots for more than $1 million Tuesday, though a quarter of the items it offered went unsold. The total sale raised $106 million.

The Geneva fall auction season concludes Wednesday, when Sotheby’s will auction a pink diamond estimated to be worth as much as $30 million.

Sotheby’s holds the record for the most expensive diamond ever auctioned, having sold the 59.6-carat Pink Star for $71 million to Hong Kong-based jewelry retailer Chow Tai Fook.

To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Mulier in Geneva at tmulier@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Eric Pfanner at epfanner1@bloomberg.net, Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net, John J. Edwards III

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