If diamonds are a girl’s best friend, a rare, massive yellow diamond must be a girl’s BFF.
Such a stone headlines Christie’s upcoming Magnificent Jewels sale in Geneva, the auction house’s first live jewelry sale of the year. The Yellow Rose, as the diamond is known, is a whopping 202-carat unmounted colored diamond from South Africa. Only two other similar gems have been sold at auction before. And the stunning jewel has a price tag to match: The diamond is expected to fetch a whopping $4.4 million at the event.
While the Yellow Rose is the showstopper, the rest of the auction is laden with stunning pieces from some of the biggest jewelers in the world, as well as impressive gems of all colors. As far as emeralds go, two of Colombian provenance are expected to fetch top dollar: A 15.9-carat emerald and diamond ring could reach $1.1 million, while a similar ring with a 17.6-carat emerald is estimated on the high end at $663,000.
If sapphires are more your speed—as a September baby, I can relate—an 11-carat Kashmir sapphire ring could hammer down for $1.3 million. And a Graff ring featuring a Burmese sugarloaf sapphire of more than 30 carats may fetch $884,000. Rubies, too, make an appearance here: A five-carat ruby and diamond ring is slated for $1.1 million, and a Bulgari Trombino ring featuring the same type of gem is priced at $552,000 on the high end. Both of those rubies are known as “pigeon blood” stones, with both exceptional quality and rarity.
For fans of Art Deco, Cartier’s pieces from the era abound, making up most of the 13 such accessories in the live auction. The jeweler has the honor of having made the final piece of the auction: an onyx and diamond brooch expected to bring in just under $500,000. Outside of Cartier, there’s a Van Cleef & Arpels bracelet from the 1920s (just under $200,000) and a Rubel Frères bracelet from 1935 (just over $350,000).
Christie’s Magnificent Jewels sales are always a highlight of the auction season, and they tend to achieve quite a pretty penny. In November, the auction house offered a massive, flawless blue diamond, which ended up hammering down for almost $44 million. That specimen, weighing 17.6 carats, is nothing compared to this year’s Yellow Rose. With the sale taking place on May 15, we have to wait only one more day to see how much that diamond ends up going home for.