Colored Diamonds Get Some Love at Sotheby’s Geneva Auction

A 103.62-carat yellow diamond known as the Love Stone was the top-seller at the most recent Sotheby’s auction in Geneva, fetching CHF 2.2 million ($2.5 million).

The claw-set ring containing the cushion modified brilliant-cut, fancy-intense-yellow, VS2-clarity stone fell within its CHF 1.8 million to CHF 3.6 million ($2 million to $4 million) estimate, Sotheby’s said Thursday.

In total, the November 8 Magnificent Jewels and Noble Jewels auction brought in $46.5 million, with over 82% of the items finding buyers. About half of the lots surpassed their upper estimates, the auction house reported.

Participants from Asia more than doubled year on year, accounting for nearly 37% of the sale’s purchases, Sotheby’s added. Buyers under 50 years old made up more than 22%, having doubled in the last five years.

“Today’s results reaffirmed the strength at the top end of the market,” said Catharine Becket, who heads the auction house’s Magnificent Jewels sales in Geneva. She noted heavy bidding for both colored and white diamonds.

Here are some of the auction’s other top items: