David Webb diamond ring stars at $14.6m Christie's NY auction
A David Webb diamond ring was the highlight of Christie's Important Jewels auction
Christie's kicked off its Luxury Week of sales in fine fashion on Tuesday (June 12), as the Important Jewels sale in New York brought superb results - highlighted by a David Webb diamond ring.
The auction, which featured a dazzling array of top-quality diamonds, achieved a total of $14.6m with impressive sell-through rates of 92% by value and 89% by lot.
As expected, diamonds took the top honours - accounting for the 10 highest sales of the event. These included a David Webb rectangular-cut E-colour 22.46 ct diamond ring which sold for $1.9m, a pear-shaped E color 14.82 ct VVS2 diamond which beat its high estimate to bring $1.6m, and an Art Deco Cartier diamond bracelet (circa 1930) which more than doubled its low estimate to sell for $470,500.
"Diamonds have been the flavor of the season, with top prices achieved in Geneva, Hong Kong and New York through Spring 2012 as seasoned collectors and new economies went head to head for the best," said Rahul Kadakia, head of jewelry atChristie's Americas.
Recent weeks have seen a number of top-quality diamonds achieve exceptional prices at auction, such as the pink Martian Diamond which smashed its $12m estimate to sell for $17.4m in Hong Kong, and the stunning Beau Sancy diamond which doubled its estimate to achieve $9.7m in Geneva.
There's no doubt that the diamond market is in rude health, boosted by the rapidly-growing number of Asian investors now turning to jewellery. A recent report estimated that by 2016, China will account for 16% of the world's diamond market - and the desire of China's super-rich for the world's finest diamonds is driving the market as we speak.
Diamonds have been favoured as a form of investment since the 1800s - and in this truly global market it seems they may be the perfect portable investment for the 21st century.
You can keep up-to-date with all the latest developments from the international jewellery market with our dedicated jewellery news section here.
