Natural pink diamonds are extremely rare. When discovered, only one in 10 weighs more than 0.20 carats. This year, as the annual cherry blossom season hits its peak, Christie’s is set to make history by offering the largest fancy vivid purple-pink diamond ever to appear at auction.
The Sakura Diamond
The 15.81 carat Sakura Diamond will be the star of Christie’s Hong Kong’s Magnificent Jewels sale on May 23.
Estimated to sell for between $25-38 million dollars, the diamond is the largest of its kind to be auctioned. According to Christie’s, the fancy vivid purple pink color grade perfectly describes the diamond’s display of strong saturation and remarkable pink hue, with a secondary color of purple, resembling the fascinating color of cherry blossoms. ‘Sakura’ is the Japanese word for cherry blossoms that bloom for a very short period at the beginning of spring, making the timing of the sale serendipitous.
Unlike other fancy colors, the unique coloration of pink diamonds is caused by distortions in the crystal lattice resulting from intense heat and pressure during their formation. Where most pink diamonds have inclusions, the Sakura was judged to be Internally Flawless.
That’s not all: This magnificent jewel belongs to a family of fewer than 2% of all gem quality diamonds which fall into the exceptional Type IIa classification, the most chemically pure of all natural diamonds, contributing to its exceptional rarity and optical transparency.
The Fancy Vivid Designation
Only a small percentage of diamonds have color saturation strong enough to be graded Fancy Vivid, often considered the most valuable of fancy color descriptors. You can read how fancy colored diamonds are graded in our prior post: How the gemstone ‘Color Universe’ works.
All told, the Sakura diamond is an immensely important natural masterpiece. As noted by Vickie Sek, Chairman, Department of Jewellery, Christie’s Asia Pacific:
Christie’s has offered some of the largest and the rarest pink diamonds in history across our global salerooms, highlighted by The Winston Pink Legacy sold in Geneva in 2018 that still holds the auction record per carat for any pink diamond… This exceptionally rare and magnificent wonder of nature represents a unique expression of identity and mesmerizing beauty through its enthralling purple pink hue, that will undoubtedly capture the hearts of discerning connoisseurs and collectors worldwide.
