Ruby and Diamond Records at Sotheby’s Jewelry Auction

A recent jewelry auction featured a star—and turned out to have more stars than expected. Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels auction, held on June 8 in New York, already included the world’s largest ruby to come to auction. The 55.22-carat cushion-cut ruby is known as “Estrela de FURA,” Portuguese for “Star of FURA,“ after the mining company FURA that discovered the jewel in Mozambique in 2022. With its impressive size, color, and clarity, the ruby sold for $34.8 million, making it the most expensive ruby to sell at auction. But it wasn’t the only item in the sale to reach that price: “The Eternal Pink,” a 10.57-carat purplish-pink diamond, sold for the same price. This is a record price per carat for a pink diamond. Colored diamonds are already rare, and pink diamonds of this size and flawless clarity, even more so. Together, the ruby and diamond set yet another record for the auction: it’s the first to have two gems sell for more than $30 million.

Photo: Sotheby’s