A Record Price for a White Diamond and Other Hong Kong Jewel Highlights

By Sotheby's 07 October 2013-- A Spectacular Oval Diamond of Supreme Importance, an unmounted oval brilliant-cut diamond weighing 118.28 carats. It set the record for the highest price ever paid for a white diamond at Sotheby's Magnificent Jewels and Jadeite sale in Hong Kong on Monday 7 October.

HONG KONG – Sotheby's Magnificent Jewels and Jadeite sale in Hong Kong on 7 October netted dazzling results, setting the record for the highest total ever for a jewelry sale in Asia, and also saw a record price for the greatest white diamond ever to be offered at auction, a 118-plus carat stone that hammered down a record HKD238.7 million / USD30.8 million.

The diamond is just one of the monumental diamonds Sotheby's is offering this autumn sales season. Two others, the Pink Star and the "Walska Briolette Diamond" brooch, come up to auction at the Magnificent Jewels auction on 13 November 2013 in Geneva.

Also at the Hong Kong sale, a ruby-and-diamond ring conceived by jewellery designer Cindy Chao sold for HKD29,800,000 / USD3,843,306, above a low estimate of HKD28,000,000 / USD3,611,160.

The Magnificent Jewels and Jadeite sale came on the heels of the Sotheby's Hong Kong 40th Anniversary Evening sale, which itself set five important auction records. Zeng Fanzhi's large-scale The Last Supper earned HKD180,440,000 / USD23,273,151, a world record for a work of contemporary Asian art as well as a world record for the work of a living Chinese artist.

Works by Zao Wou-Ki, Liu Ye and Walter Spies each earned world records for the artists at auction.