It’s hard to argue with the statement that jewelry is beautiful. They are admired by many people for their beauty. And some may even lose their heads in the figurative sense of the word because of them. And you can verify this personally. It is enough to study the most expensive jewelry in the world, many of which were made especially for connoisseurs of luxury.
Pink Diamond Pink Star
This is an undoubted leader. The pink diamond, known as the Pink Star, is the most expensive jewelry ever put up for sale in the world. It is unique, its weight is 59.6 carats (11.92 grams). Visually, its dimensions are 2.69 x 2.06 cm.
However, it is not only remarkable for its appearance. It is important to note that this pink diamond belongs to an extremely rare subgroup of diamonds with almost perfect optical transparency and the purest crystals. An instance with similar characteristics is very difficult to find. Only 2% of jewelry diamonds are in this subgroup.
In 2013, November 13, the Pink Star was almost sold at auction to a New York jeweler named Isaac Wolf, who was then offering 83,187,000 dollars for him. This is more than 4.8 billion rubles at today's rate! But the deal did not take place. As a result, they sold the stone only on April 4, 2017, in Hong Kong. For it, the buyer (according to the auction house, this is the Hong Kong company Chow Tai Fook Jewelery) gave 71.2 million dollars. Although the starting price was 51.6 million. Trading lasted about 5 minutes.
Value from the past
Well, the pink diamond is now truly the most expensive jewel in the world. But this is only for now. Until the moment when something new, more expensive, appears. After all, until the “Pink Star” existed, other things had a value considered the highest. Therefore, now it is worth plunging into history.
A wandering pearl is a jewel that has become the most expensive jewelry in the world in the 16th century. It has a distinctive pear-shaped shape and a weight of 55.95 carats. She was caught by a black slave in the Pearl Islands, for which he was granted freedom.
From a wonderful find they made a pendant, which became part of the dress in which the Spanish queens posed for ceremonial portraits. Because of its severity, the pearl often fell out of the frame. If you believe the legends, then she was twice lost at the balls by the spouses of Hamilton.
The last owner of the jewel was Elizabeth Taylor. "Queen of Hollywood" gave her husband Richard Burton. But after the death of the actress, the pearl was sold at auction for 11.8 million dollars.
From the Wallis Simpson Collection
The wife of the Duke of Windsor, who until 1936 was the king of Great Britain, had a lot of jewelry, most of them from Cartier. All of them were beautiful and had their own history. The lady also owned the most expensive jewelry in the world for those years. It was a panther bracelet. Her body is made of onyx and diamonds, and the eyes of a wild cat sparkle with emeralds.
After the death of Wallis Simpson, this product was auctioned along with its other jewelry. The bracelet was sold for 12.4 million dollars.
Jewelry with function ... clothes
And this also happens. A striking example is a unique bikini made of diamonds and platinum. In such a "robe" in 2006 at a fashion show appeared model Molly Sims. The total weight of the miniature swimsuit was 150 carats (~ 30 grams). And the price exceeded the mark of $ 30 million. By the way, it took 254 precious stones to make a swimsuit, a good part of which had a very rare shape.
That's just this extravagant "outfit", which does not cover absolutely nothing, no one decided to buy. Therefore, at the moment it is located in a company repository called Steinmetz Diamonds. She specializes, by the way, in the purchase and sale of diamonds.
Notorious item
One cannot fail to note the so-called Hope diamond, telling about the most expensive jewelry in the world. A photo of him is presented below. This is a large diamond in deep sapphire blue, weighing 45.52 carats.
The product got its name in honor of its first owner, who was Henry Philip Hope, a British aristocrat. It was at his disposal that this diamond was first noticed (the event dates back to 1839). What is so bad known this product? The fact that it was obtained by re-cutting the famous blue diamond from the French crown. Initially, this was only a version. However, it arose in the 50s of the XIX century, when the product was exhibited at world famous exhibitions. And in 2008, the version gained scientific confirmation.
The stone, by the way, was inherited. The last family owner was Lord Pelham-Clinton-Hope, who sold it for debts in 1910. The jeweler Pierre Cartier bought the diamond for huge money at that time - 550,000 francs. By the way, he began to spread rumors about a curse imposed on the stone. After there were two more owners, and at the moment this diamond, considered one of the most famous in the New World, is in the Museum of Natural History in Washington.
Values that are hard to miss
One can not ignore the attention and large products, talking about the most expensive jewelry in the world. The photo below shows just one of these. This is a tiara with diamonds and emeralds, which from the beginning of the XX century belonged to Katarina - the wife of the Prussian prince Guido Henkel von Donnersmark. Her auction price is 13 million dollars.
Also worth mentioning is a necklace made of jadeite beads worth over $ 27 million. He had many owners. Among them is Barbara Hatton, a secular lioness in the United States in the mid-20th century.
And completes the top 10 most expensive jewelry in the world, which are really impressive, the watches of the Swiss company Chopard, which weigh 201 carats and cost $ 25 million. They consist of 874 diamonds of various sizes. The largest of them is 15 carats. Particularly surprising is the mechanism by which the three most impressive stones move away, thus opening the dial.
Diamond rating
In the end, I would like to note with attention the top of the most expensive jewelry in the world, which has not yet been said.
The third place belongs to the Pink Graff diamond ring. Its auction price was $ 46.2 million. But once Harry Winston himself owned it - the first jeweler of the New World!
In second place in the rating under the name “The most expensive jewelry in the world” is the “Incomparable” necklace. You can see it in the photo below. Small stones weigh a total of 230 ct. And the bottom one is a 407.48-carat diamond, which is the largest in the entire jewelry sphere of our planet. Most striking is the fact that its uncut version (which weighed 890 carats!) Was found among the cobblestones by a little girl from Congo.
The first place is occupied by Wittelsbach. This dark blue diamond weighing 35.56 carats was once part of two crowns - the Austrian and the Bavarian. But in 2008, it was bought by a jeweler from London named Lawrence Graff for $ 24.3 million. He removed about 4.5 carats! This infuriated many jewelers. But Lawrence Graff thus increased the purity of the stone. And the price, respectively, too. In 2011, he sold it for $ 80 million to a member of the Qatar royal family.