FURA’s 55.22-Carat Estrela Ruby Sold for Record $34.8 Million at Sotheby’s Auction

A giant ruby ​​of 55.22 carats, dubbed Estrela de Fura, the largest ever at auction, was sold Thursday in New York for 34.8 million dollars, a record for this stone, announced the company Sotheby’s.

Cut and shaped in a rough stone of 101 carats discovered in September in a mine of Montepeuz, in Mozambique, operated by the company Fura Gems, the jewel was a star during this sale of jewels which included 100 lots.

Proposed at a starting price of 21 million dollars, it was awarded 30 million dollars, or 34.8 million with fees and commissions, to an anonymous purchaser by telephone.

A Sotheby’s spokeswoman told AFP that the buyer was a “private collector from the Middle East”, without further details.

The previous record belonged to a 25.59-carat Burmese ruby, sold for $30.33 million including fees by Sotheby’s in Geneva in 2015.

The marketing of this extremely rare jewel, exhibited in Hong Kong, Taipei, Singapore, Geneva, Dubai and New York, was an event for the world of jewellery.

“It’s a true wonder of nature. Any ruby ​​that comes out of the ground and ends up exceeding five carats as a polished ruby ​​is something rare. A 10 carat ruby ​​is very rare. 20 carats is almost never seen. A ruby ​​over 50 carats is once in a lifetime,” Sotheby’s head of jewelry for the Americas, Quig Bruning, told AFP.

During the same auction session, “The Eternal Pink”, a rare pink diamond of 10.57 carats, resulting from the exploitation of a mine in Botswana, was sold for the same price of 34.8 million dollars. , a record per carat ($3.29 million) for a stone of this color.

The current all-time high for the sale price of a pink diamond was reached in Hong Kong in 2017, when the “Pink Star” (59.60 carats) was bought at 71.2 million dollars.