The most valuable diamond earrings to ever be put up for auction are on display in London. A super-rare blue one is called Apollo and Artemis is pink.
ADVERTISEMENTThe most valuable earrings to ever be put up for auction have gone on display.
They are called Apollo and Artemis – because if you are looking for top dollar when selling very special diamonds you have to give them catchy names.
Apollo is blue and Artemis is pink and they have been on show in London before being auctioned in Geneva on May 16.
David Bennett, Worldwide Chairman of Sotheby’s International Jewellery Division, called them, “the most important pair of earrings ever to appear at auction”.
He explained they are important because “they are the most extraordinary cuts”, adding: “To have a pair of diamonds 16 and 14-and-a-half carat – one vivid blue, one intense pink – is unheard of. So they are very exciting.”
The breathtaking Apollo and Artemis #Diamonds lead our Magnificent Jewels & Noble Jewels sale in #Geneva this spring https://t.co/uJ1tcXugGgpic.twitter.com/hW0pbkPf7D
— Sotheby’s (@Sothebys) April 10, 2017
The estimated price is around 65 million euros for the two, but you don’t have to buy both.
The Sotheby’s man said: “We’re going to sell them as separate lots because the feeling was that maybe there’s somebody who’ll want one, rather than another one, but also it’s possible for people to buy them as a pair really by buying both. This is absolutely unprecedented – to find a pair of stones like this.”
They are named after the Greek gods Apollo and Artemis – in mythology, diamonds were believed to be the tears of the gods.
How rare
The 14.54-carat Apollo Blue is described by Sotheby’s as “the largest Internally Flawless Fancy Vivid Blue diamond ever to be offered at auction”. It could go for as much as 47 million euros
It is a Type IIb diamond which account for less than 0.1 percent of the world’s diamonds.
The 16-carat Artemis Pink, with its “Fancy Intense Pink” hue is not as rare but is still is expected to raise as much as 17 million euros.
Of all diamonds found each year only three percent are classified as coloured, and less than five percent of those are predominantly pink.
