Williamson Pink Star diamond sells for record $57m in Hong Kong auction

A “fancy vivid pink” diamond has set a new world record after being sold for 453 million Hong Kong dollars ($57 million), more than double its estimated price. This is now the highest price per carat for a diamond sold at auction. The 11.15-carat Williamson Pink Star diamond was sold to an undisclosed buyer at auction by Sotheby’s Hong Kong on Friday.

The cushion-shaped diamond is named after two other large pink diamonds. One is the 59.60-carat, mixed-cut, oval Pink Star diamond that sold at auction in 2017 for $71.2m (then £57m), and the Williamson stone, a 23.60-carat diamond given to Queen Elizabeth II as a wedding gift by Canadian geologist and ardent royalist John Thoburn Williamson in 1947.

Williamson owned the Mwadui mine in Tanzania where the Williamson stone and the Pink Star were discovered. Pink diamonds are extremely rare and how they turn pink is still unknown.

Mounted as a floral brooch designed by Frederick Mew, of Cartier, in 1953, the Williamson was a favourite of the late Queen. She wore it on many occasions, including her silver jubilee.

Tobias Kormind, the managing director of London jewellery shop 77 Diamonds, said the fact that the stone has a link to the late monarch is likely to have helped elevate its value.

“This is an astounding result, proving the resilience of top diamonds in a shaky economy,” he said. “When you consider an alluring link to Queen Elizabeth, the rising prices for pink diamonds thanks to their increasing rarity, and the backdrop of an unstable global economy.

“Some of the world’s highest quality diamonds have seen prices double over the last 10 years.”

Wenhao Yu, the chair of jewellery and watches at Sotheby’s Asia, was quoted by The Guardian as saying, “The discovery of a gem-quality pink diamond of any size is an extremely rare occurrence, something that, with the recent closure of the Argyle mine, seemed, until recently, highly improbable.”

Argyle is a diamond mine in the remote north of Western Australia which was closed in 2020 after 37 years of operation.