Colored stones, which account for about 0.01 percent of mined production, are prized for their rarity and command the highest price per carat. Pink is the most desirable color.
The diamond fetched the third-highest auction price in 2013 for any artwork or collectible, according to Bloomberg calculations. Two objects that surpassed it were sold the same week in New York: Francis Bacon’s 1969 triptych “Three Studies of Lucian Freud” that went for $142.4 million at Christie’s in New York, and Andy Warhol’s silk-screen painting “Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster),” which sold for $105.4 million at Sotheby’s in New York.
The bidding war for the diamond lasted for five minutes, starting at 48 million Swiss francs ($52.5 million) and the final price set a record for any gemstone at auction. The winning bidder, Isaac Wolf, renamed his trophy “The Pink Dream” after the auction, according to Sotheby’s.
Wolf couldn’t be immediately reached. Sotheby’s declined to comment on what caused the default or whether the buyer had been vetted.
‘Big Profit’
In a television interview posted on Youtube.com, Wolf said he bought the stone with the backing of other investors.
“It’s not that I am buying this with the money I have in my piggy bank,” he said. “It’s basically a group of investors, financial people that are backing me in this and they are doing this as an investment, and hope to make a big profit.”
Wolf said he saw “a great opportunity” in buying the diamond because “this particular color of the diamond today in the 10 carat sells for $2.5 million a carat.” At almost 60 carats, his diamond could be worth $150 million, he said.
“And I bought it for $83 million,” he said in an interview. “So you have to admit that I bought it well.”