The "Beau Sancy" diamond is
tipped to fetch up to $4 million at auction.
THE 400-year-old Beau Sancy, one of the
world's oldest and most-storied diamonds in private hands, is up for sale at
Sotheby's auction house.
Weighing in at 34.98 carats, the sparkling
pear-cut gem, above, is estimated to be worth up to $US4 million ($3.87
million).
Those who don't have the money to buy
the jewel can see it on display ahead of next month's sale.
Cut from the famous gem mines in the
Indian city of Golconda, the diamond made its way through four royal European
families and once belonged to Queen Marie de Medici of France.
Its most recent owners are the
descendants of the last Emperor of Germany.
The gem is currently on display in
Paris. It will travel to London and Zurich before its auctioning in Geneva on
May 14.
It’s funny reading that the diamond is
“400 years old”!
I am sure they mean since it was
originally cut.
However, I think the Taylor-Burton Diamond is infinitely nicer!
Weighing in at 69.42 carats it cost Richard Burton a ‘mere’ $1.1 million!
But that is just my opinion!
*******************
GENEVA:
A centuries-old diamond passed down through generations of European royalty
fetched nine million Swiss francs ($9.7 million) at auction in Geneva on
Tuesday. The 35-carat "Beau Sancy" diamond was worn by Marie de Medici, Queen
consort of Henry IV, at her coronation in 1610.
Five bidders spanning
three continents competed for the historic jewel at a Sotheby's auction where
there was little evidence of the current global financial woes.
An
anonymous telephone bidder purchased the jewel, put on the market by the House
of Prussia and described by Sotheby's as one of the "most fascinating and
romantic" gems ever to come to auction.
The buyer paid 9,042,500 Swiss
francs ($9,699,618) including the buyer's premium for the pear-shaped, double
rose cut diamond, more than double the $2 million to $4 million estimate.
"You are buying an historic work of art, you are not buying a diamond,"
said Philipp Herzog von Wuerttenberg, chairman of Sotheby's Europe, following
the sale. "I fell in love with it when I saw it. It's the cut, it's the
history," he said.
The Beau Sancy attracted bids from North America, Europe and Asia, he
said, refusing to give further details about the buyer. The diamond's royal
connections date back to 1604 when it was bought for Henri IV of France at the
insistence of his wife Marie de Medici who wore it atop her crown at her
coronation.
Later that century it was acquired by the Dutch and used to
seal the wedding of Willem II of Orange Nassau to Mary Stuart, daughter of
Charles I of England. Stuart pawned the rose-cut gem to finance her brother
Charles II's fight for the throne.
In 1702, the first king of Prussia
gave it pride of place in the new royal crown and it has passed through
generations of the House of Prussia until today.
"We've sold much larger
diamonds but it has this wonderful romantic history, an unparalleled royal
history, it has never been in non-royal hands," said David Bennett, co-chairman
of Sotheby's Switzerland, ahead of the sale.
The Beau Sancy went under
the hammer at Geneva's Beau Rivage hotel as part of Sotheby's "Magnificent
Jewels and Noble Jewels" sale.
A second historic diamond, a 7.3-carat
"fancy yellow" formerly belonging to Charles Edward Stuart, one-time pretender to the thrones of Great Britain and
Ireland, sold to a telephone bidder for 902,500 francs ($968,085) including the
buyers premium.
[.....]
Four-hundred-year old diamond sells at
auction for nearly $A10 million.
