A close look at the rare Sun Drop diamond that's worth over $12 million
For those who love yellow diamonds, here's everything you need to know about the world's rarest, and most expensive gem of its kind.
The Sun-Drop Diamond, considered the largest known pear-shaped fancy vivid yellow diamond in the world, is 110.03 carats and set a world record back in 2011 as the most expensive yellow diamond sold at auction.
It sold for a staggering $12.3 million at Sotheby’s Sale of Magnificent Jewels in Geneva.
The previous record for a yellow diamond was achieved by “The Vivid Yellow,” a 32.77-carat pear‐shaped fancy vivid yellow diamond, VS2, which sold for nearly $6.6 million at Christie’s New York in 2010. The previous world auction record price per carat for an emerald was achieved by a 10-carat emerald ring, sold for $113,000 per carat, at Christie’s Hong Kong in May 2000.
The Sun-Drop is graded fancy vivid yellow, the highest colour grading for a yellow diamond, and has a purity of VVS1. The stone was previously exhibited at London’s Natural History Museum and was originally discovered in South Africa in 2010. It was then cut and polished by Cora International, a New York diamond manufacturer.
Back in 2011, after the auction David Bennett, chairman of Sotheby’s Jewellery Department in Europe and the Middle East and co‐chairman of Sotheby’s Switzerland said: “We are thrilled with the price achieved by this spectacular daffodil yellow diamond; it is one of the most impressive I have had the pleasure of selling.”
Other coloured diamonds and gemstones that achieved strong results included a grade A 38.88-carat, cushion‐shaped diamond that fetched nearly $7 million. The D colour, flawless clarity stone is part of the Type IIa subgroup, which comprise less than 2 percent of all gem diamonds. They are chemically the purest of all diamond crystals and often have extraordinary optical transparency. Alongside this, a grade A 4.16-crata fancy vivid blue cut‐cornered rectangular modified brilliant‐cut diamond sold for $4.2 million.