Christie's sells Ruby for a Record $ 3.6 Million

Christie's sells Ruby for a Record $ 3.6 Million

© Photo Credit: CHRISTIE'S LTD.2006

The winning bid, totaling $3.6 million dollars, was placed by Laurence Graff, a London jeweler whose flagship store is located on Bond St. "The price per carat was high", he indicated, "but the cut and spread of color are the finest I have seen". Graff intends to call the ruby the "Graff Ruby".

A record selling price for ruby was set at Christie's in St. Moritz on February 15 when an 8.62 carat cushion-cut ruby realized a price of $425,000 per carat. This record-breaking gemstone was termed the desired "pigeon's blood" red used for highly sought rubies from Burma. It was also noted that the ruby was certified by the SSEF lab in Switzerland confirming the authenticity of the ruby with "No indications of heating".

The previous record for a ruby was sold by Christie's last year in New York where and 8.01 carat stone sold for $275,000 per carat.

According to index-maker Art Market Research, auction prices for jewels have carried high prices since 1990. Francois Curiel, chairman of Christie's Europe and worldwide jewelry chief, remarked, "As you can see from yesterday's sale, the trend is still up".

This was the most important sale ever organised by Christie’s in St Moritz and, as with fine and decorative arts, the jewellery market continues to show tremendous strength, for diamonds and rare coloured gemstones.

- The International Gem & Jewelry Show is two of the largest exhibitions of gems, minerals and jewelry show in the world. The "Original" Classic International Gem & Jewelry Show, Inc. (r) conducts 80 such shows across 30 cities of The united states every year. The exhibition is in three sections: two open for the public and two exclusively for tradesman. Dealers of every type of exotic gemstones, birthstones, healing gemstones, heirlooms, among others, from countries as far as China, India, Indonesia, South Africa, West Africa, Australia, Poland, Russia, and Canada, to name a few, are present here.

Sotheby's International Jewelry Division holds periodic auctions on jewels and gemstones that are exquisite. Sotheby holds the record for the most expensive precious stone. It auctioned a 100.10 Karat pear-shaped flawless diamond for $16,548,750. It's sold every gemstone, including diamonds, rubies, emeralds and cultured pearls. Sotheby's hold sales throughout the year in New York, Geneva, Hong Kong, London, Milan, St. Moritz, Melbourne and Amsterdam. Their next auction of jewels is in March 2006 in London.

These are a number of the gemstone exhibitions. Gemstones can also be acquired through auctions from reputed auction houses.

The auction house Christie's, periodically holds its auctions on jewels and gemstones. In April 2005 it sold an oval-cut Burmese ruby of 8.01cts ($275,000 per ct) in New York, for $ 2,200,000. A pair of pear-shaped D color, potentially flawless Golconda diamonds of 27.72 and 33.83cts went for $4,123,333 in May 2005. These are exquisite pieces for collectors and are very very expensive.