In six minutes, a white egg-sized 118 carat diamond sold for a record setting $30.8 million at an auction in Hong Kong BBC News reported Monday.
"Hong Kong has in the last few years pulled itself up alongside Geneva and New York as one of the three major selling centers at auction for diamonds," Quek Chin Yeow, deputy chairman of Sotheby's Asia and an international diamond expert told the Associated Press.
The jewelry, called the "magnificent oval diamond" was bought by a phone bidder at a Sotheby's sale at a price that succeeded the previous record of $26.7 million for an item sold at an auction in Geneva in May BBC News reported.
Prior to bidding, the item was described by Sotheby's as "the largest D colour flawless diamond," also known as the finest white diamond. These are rare, and often go for big amounts.
The "colour D" for instance was expected to sell for anywhere between $28 million and $35 million according to the highest quality rating it had from the Gemological Institute of America, BBC News reported. Another big item on the auction block was a 7.6 carat vivid blue diamond with 1.7 carat pink diamonds that went for $16 million BBC News reported. The item sold for $3 million less than the pre-auction estimated price of $19 million, according to the AP.
Both diamonds were just two out of 330 lots of rare jewelry that sold for a total of $95 million, $15 million less than anticipated. The white diamond was carved from a 299 carat rough stone found in 2011 in Southern Africa. Preparing it for bid was no easy task; it took several months for the jewelry to be crafted to perfection. The bidding process was also tough for the two phone bidders who kept competing with one another until one conceded.
