A new world record for the diamond industry has just been set on Tuesday evening at the famous Christie’s auction house in Hong Kong. At 10.8 million dollars, this stunning 5.0 carat chickpea sized pink diamond (seen on the left) set the record for the highest price per carat diamond ever to be purchased.

The center pink diamond is set in gold prongs and flanked by two smaller colorless diamonds. These three stones were mounted by internationally acclaimed jeweler Graff, which is owned by the famous British tycoon, Laurence Graff. What is so special about the center pink diamond is the fact that it is completely blemish free – a trait so rare that it occurs only in 1 diamond out of 100,000. Also, the pink diamond’s bubblegum hue as opposed to the more common light rose hue makes this diamond extremely valuable in terms of saturation. Alan Bronstein, a rare diamond dealer from New York, explains that “Stones like this – they’re not just jewelry, they’re artwork”.

The piece of jewelry which was dubbed “Vivid Pink” toured Singapore, Bangkok and Geneva before returning to Hong Kong for the official auction. The pink diamond ring was first expected to sell “only” for around 5 to 7 million dollars, as stated in the pre-sale estimate. However, the bid completely exceeded expectations when an Asian buyer, who chose to remain unidentified, made the record smashing offer. An offer that came in as a close second belonged to that of Liu Yiqian, a Chinese millionaire ranked 196 on the Forbes’ list of the richest people in China. “This definitely went above its high estimate, but that is what the market thought it was worth”, said a Christie’s spokeswoman to AFP.

It turns out that the Asian market has become quite an important contributor for these auction houses. “They are very active, very sophisticated and they are buying at the very high end”, she said. More specifically, the Hong Kong branch has become Christie’s most important auction center in the area. It attracts many buyers looking for the high end goods, whether they are over the top diamond jewelry pieces or important art must haves.

The most expensive diamond jewelry ever to be sold at Christie’s still remains the nearly 36 carat colorless diamond sold in London. Oddly enough, the person behind this purchase was Graff – the same British billionaire who actually designed the Vivid Pink diamond. It was precisely around this time of last year when the diamond was purchased by Graff for a whopping 24.3 million dollars. At 35.56 carats, this makes its price per carat stand at approximately 680,000 dollars – much below the current record holder.

Indeed, as far as diamond price per carat is concerned, there is no doubt that the current record breaking Vivid Pink diamond will hold its ground for a long time. Being sold at approximately 2.1 million dollars per carat, Christie’s spokeswoman confirms to AFP that “we think this will probably hold for quite some time – it is a very strong price.”