The rare "Pink Star" diamond became the world’s most valuable gemstone when it sold for $71.2 million Tuesday at a Sotheby’s auction in Hong Kong.
The previous most valuable gemstone was the Oppenheimer Blue, which sold for $57.5 million last May at a Christie’s auction in Geneva.
Geneva is typically the location for the most important diamond auctions, but Sotheby's decided to try selling the 59.6 carat Pink Star diamond in Hong Kong after a 2013 Geneva auction bidder defaulted on an $83 million bid and Sotheby’s ended up with the expensive stone for the last four years. The auction house had to spend $60 million to cover the guaranteed price, The Washington Post reported.
The Pink Star gem took almost two years to cut after being discovered in Botswana in 1999. It first appeared to the public in 2003 and has been displayed at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and the Natural History Museum in London.
The fancy pink color of the stone makes it the highest grade diamond, and its purity and flawless cut put it in the top 2 percent of all diamonds in the world, Fortune said.
The stone was purchased by Hong Kong jewelry conglomerate Chow Tai Fook, which outbid two other telephone bidders, according to the Post. The family-owned retailer is one of the largest jewelers in the world.
Twitter users seemed in awe of the huge stone and joked about how they would like to have it.
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