At a Christie’s Magnificent Jewels event last week, a new record was set for purple-pink diamonds. The popularity of fancy-colored diamonds has been strong for a while, but even Christie’s didn’t expect such a strong showing for the ring in which the 10.38-carat stone is set. The high estimate for the piece was $7 million, and it was knocked down for nearly double that, at almost $14 million.
The high sum paid for the ring isn’t entirely surprising: The diamond is famously connected to Marie Antoinette. According to Robb Report, when the ill-fated last queen of France was trying to escape Paris, she gave her cache of jewels to her coiffeur, and this purple-pink gem was among them. After the monarchy’s fall, it was given to Duchess Marie-Thérèse de Angoulême, the royal family’s sole heir, and sometime later, to Queen Marie Theresa of Bavaria.
The purplish pink diamond made its appearance on the block mounted in a ring designed by JAR, with a fleur-de-lis-like crown. The sale price was an auction record for a piece by JAR as well.
