To follow up on my March 30th post on D color, Flawless diamonds, the number of these stones sold, most of them at auction, is tiny compared to the volume of diamonds sold worldwide each year or even just at auction. But their impact is huge. The sale of these diamonds makes news in part because they are almost always for millions of dollars and the demand for these diamonds from wealthy private clients exceeds the supply of them.
To illustrate, the 76.02 carat, Archduke Joseph diamond is a D, Internally Flawless stone which originates from the Golconda region of India where several other of the world’s oldest and most famous diamonds come from. It sold at Christie’s November 2012 Geneva auction for $21.5 million. Six months later in May 2013, a 101.73 carat pear shaped, D, Flawless diamond sold again at Christie’s Geneva auction for $26.7 million. That set a record as the largest D, Flawless ever sold at auction. The record lasted until October of the same year (2013) when a 118.28 carat D, Flawless was sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong auction for $30.6 million.
Historically, alluvial diggings in the Golconda region has been the source of the world’s finest diamonds going back to the 15th century. In the 20th and early 21st century, the Cullinan Mine (renamed from Premier) in South Africa has been the source of many D, Flawless stones as well as the Letseng mine of Lesotho. The Karowe mine in Botswana is the most recent addition producing many large diamonds, including a 1,111 carat diamond which looks to D potential.
D, Flawless diamonds are naturally scarce, especially when combined with large size. But the number of clients wanting them is constantly on the increase creating a situation in which increased competition will bid prices to fabulous levels and create great excitement in the auctions of Chrities and Sothebys. Seventy percent of the word’s wealthiest 1 percent made their money in the last 10 years and are looking to invest at least part of it in art, real estate and diamonds. That has made D, Flawless diamonds the glittering stars of the auction world.
