‘The Rock’, a record-setting white diamond, goes up for auction

div classBodysc17zpet90 cdBBJodivpBy Cecile Mantovani and Emma Fargep

pGENEVA Reuters – The largest white diamond ever auctioned will go under the hammer in Geneva next week, part of a sale by Christies that features two stones weighing more than 200 carats each. pdivdivdiv classBodysc17zpet90 cdBBJodiv

“The Rock”, a 228.31 carat pearshaped stone roughly the size of a golf ball, is expected to sell for up to 30 million, the auctioneer said.

“Often with these largest stones, they sacrifice some of the shape in order to keep the weight,” Max Fawcett, the head of Christies jewellery department in Geneva, told Reuters.

“This is a perfectly symmetrical pearshape form and …one of the rarest gems ever to be sold at auction.”

Diamond prices have been buoyed by sanctions on major producer Russia as well as the return of VIP events as pandemic restrictions unwind.

Mined in South Africa, “The Rock” was worn by its former owner as a Cartier necklace. The previous auction record for a white diamond was a 163.41 carat gem sold in 2017.

Christies is also selling a 205.07 carat yellow, cushionshaped stoned named “The Red Cross Diamond” since an unspecified portion of the auction proceeds will go to the Genevabased International Committee of the Red Cross ICRC.

The gem, which has Maltese cross faceted at its base, was first sold by Christies in 1918 at a London auction where residents sold precious household items to help the war effort. Those proceeds, 10,000 pounds now 12,350, helped the British Red Cross Society.

An ICRC spokesperson said that this time, a portion of the proceeds from the sale would go to bringing clean water to people affected by conflict.p

1 0.8100 poundsp

Writing by Emma Farge editing by John Stonestreet

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