The gem of more than 18 carats is the largest pear-shaped pink diamond of this quality ever auctioned, adds Christie's, owned by Artémis, holding company of the French Pinault family.

The diamond, which will be auctioned for the first time on November 8, has been estimated at between $25 and $35 million.

It was mounted on a ring, flanked on either side by a large white diamond.

It weighs exactly 18.18 carats, a number considered favorable in Asia according to Christie's.

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"Its auspicious weight of 18.18 carats (...) actually brings good luck to the new owner," Angela Berden, an expert at Christie's, told AFP.

"It's a beautiful stone, it's extremely rare to find a pink diamond, a hot pink diamond, of this size," she adds, "I wouldn't know where to find another."

The “Fortune Pink” is the largest brilliant pink pear-shaped diamond to be auctioned to date, but other larger cushion-shaped diamonds have already been sold.

In 2018, Christie's sold a spectacular 18.96-carat pink diamond, the "Pink Legacy", for more than 50 million Swiss francs, or $49.9 million at the time - a record price per carat for a stone of that color.

This emerald-cut diamond discovered around a century ago in South Africa was acquired by the American jeweler Harry Winston, owned by the Swiss watch group Swatch, who immediately renamed it the "Winston Pink Legacy".

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The previous year, the "Raj Pink", the largest intense pink diamond in the world weighing 37.3 carats and auctioned by Sotheby's, had not found a buyer.

It had been estimated at up to $30 million.

© 2022 AFP