Sotheby's sells two diamonds for almost $8M

May 26, 2007

Geneva—Sotheby's auction house sold two yellow diamonds, known as the Donnersmarck Diamonds, for approximately $4.6 million and $3.2 million, during its "Magnificent and Noble Jewels" sale held here on Thursday.The sale—the most successful at Sotheby's Geneva since 2000, with the highest total for a jewelry auction so far this year—brought in a total of $40.5 million. Six lots sold for more than $1 million.Sotheby's attributes the success of the sale to the noble provenance and quality of the jewelry.The Donnersmarck Diamonds, the auction's top two lots, are a pear-shaped diamond weighing 82.48 carats and a cushion-shaped diamond weighing 102.54 carats. Sotheby's had estimated the value of each stone at $1.5 million to $1.95 million.An additional top lot of the night was a diamond necklace from the collection of an Italian Princely family, which sold for $790,583, nearly double its presale estimate of $427,000.