The “Estrela de Fura,” a dazzling 55.22-carat ruby, made auction history by fetching a whopping $34.8 million at Sotheby’s in New York, setting a record for the precious gem.
This extraordinary jewel was skillfully cut from a 101-carat rough stone, discovered the previous July at the Montepeuz ruby mine in Mozambique, run by the renowned Fura Gems.
Among a diverse selection of 100 unique items at the jewelry sale, the Estrela de Fura stole the spotlight. Beginning at a bid of $21 million, the ruby generated immense interest and eventually went to an anonymous phone bidder for a remarkable $30 million before fees and commissions.
The previous auction record for a ruby was held by a 25.59-carat Burmese stone, which sold for $30.33 million at a Sotheby’s auction in Geneva in 2015.
Quig Bruning, Sotheby’s head of jewelry in the Americas, lauded the Estrela de Fura’s extraordinary rarity. He said, “Rubies of over five carats are rare finds. Ten carats are even rarer. Twenty-carat rubies are virtually unheard of. Any ruby over 50 carats is genuinely a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence.”
Sotheby’s also marked another landmark sale with “The Eternal Pink,” a stunning 10.57-carat diamond from a Botswanan mine. This diamond matched the Estrela de Fura’s record-breaking price of $34.8 million, thereby setting a record per-carat value of $3.29 million for a diamond of its color.
However, the title of the priciest pink diamond ever auctioned still rests with the “Pink Star,” a 59.60-carat marvel garnered a staggering $71.2 million at a Hong Kong auction in 2017.
