Rare Pink Diamond to Break Records at $35M Sotheby’s Auction

A rare pink diamond known as “The Eternal Pink” is poised to break records in an upcoming Sotheby’s auction with an estimate of more than $35 million.

The stone is the most valuable “purplish pink” diamond to ever appear at auction, according to Sotheby’s. At 10.57 carats, it also carries a price per carat estimate of more than $3,300,000, the highest ever placed on a diamond or gemstone.

“This color is the most beautiful and concentrated shade of pink in diamonds that I have ever seen or has ever come to market,” said Quig Bruning, head of Sotheby’s jewelry department for the Americas, in a statement.

Before being sold at a Sotheby’s auction in New York on June 8, the diamond will be exhibited in a world tour across Hong Kong, Dubai, Singapore, Shanghai, Taiwan and Geneva.

The current price per carat record is held by another pink diamond sold by Sotheby’s in Oct. 2022 for more than $5,100,000 per carat. In 2017, the auction house also set the auction record for a diamond or gemstone when it sold a 59.60 carat pink diamond for $71.2 million.

“Of all diamonds submitted to the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), less than 3 percent are classified as colored diamonds,” said Sotheby’s, adding that pink diamonds are one of the rarest naturally occurring colored stones.

How are pink diamonds created?

While yellow and blue diamonds are colored by nitrogen and boron respectively, the cause of pink diamonds remains a mystery. Some experts believe the pink hue is created “during the stone’s formation process deep within the earth,” according to the auction house.

The Eternal Pink also has the highest possible color grade for a colored diamond and belongs to the rare Type Ila subgroup, which comprises less than 2 percent of all gem diamonds and is made up of the most chemically pure crystals.

The stone was mined at the Damtshaa mine in Botswana by De Beers, an international diamond company based in London, according to Sotheby’s.

The Damtshaa mine was closed in 2021 amid weak demand stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic. And earlier this year, Botswana President Mogweetski Masisi reportedly threatened to end the nation’s 50-year partnership with De Beers if the company does not begin to provide Botswana a larger share of its diamond profits.