Historical diamond sold for $9.7m

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Historical diamond sold for $9.7m

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A 35 carat diamond with a history reaching back more than 400 years fetched almost $ 9.7 million.

16 May,2012 06:20 am

A diamond coveted by kings, queens and princes for centuries, used to reinforce alliances between nations and pawned to pay off royal debts fetched almost $ 9.7 million at a Sothebys auction in Geneva on Tuesday.The Beau Sancy, a 35-carat modified pear double rose cut diamond belonging to Georg Friedrich, Prince of Prussia and head of the former ruling dynasty of the German empire was sold for $ 9.699,618 million, more than double of pre-sale estimate.Sothebys Philipp Von Wurtemberg conducted the auction where four telephone bidders and one bidder in the auction room pushed up the price. An anonymous phone bidder won the bidding war.Why did they buy it? Because I am sure its the most beautiful stone for me, I fell in love with that stone when I saw it first, its the cut, its the history and its unique because its historically the oldest stone we ever sold on auction, Von Wurtemberg said after the sale.Though the price of the Beau Sancy was not unusual for this type of diamond, Von Wurtemberg attributed its popularity due to its part in the fluctuating fortunes of Europes royal families for more than 400 years. And you know the buyer must not have been only a diamond buyer, its a collector, its a collector of historical pieces, its a piece of art, and not a diamond, you have to see it like that, Wurtemberg said.The diamond originated from the mines in India near Golconda and was acquired by Nicolas de Harlay, Lord of Sancy, in Constantinople in the 1500s, explaining its name. In 1604 it was bought for 75,000 livres by French king Henry IV as a gift for his wife, Marie de Medici.According to Sothebys, the queen had long coveted the stone, especially after learning that de Harlay had sold a larger diamond called the Sancy and now part of the Louvre Collection to King James I of England.Henry IV was assassinated in 1610, and after years of rivalry between Marie and her son King Louis XIII, she was eventually exiled in disgrace.