The Graff Pink: Sixty Years Unnamed, Then a World Record

On November 16, 2010, a 24.78-carat emerald-cut diamond sold at Sotheby's Geneva for a hammer price of roughly $46 million, well above its $27–38 million pre-sale estimate. The buyer, London jeweler Laurence Graff, named it the Graff Pink on the spot, but the stone's history stretches back decades before that sale.

An Unnamed Diamond for Sixty Years

The diamond first surfaced in the hands of American jeweler Harry Winston in the 1950s, who sold it into private ownership. It then remained largely out of public view for roughly sixty years, unnamed and rarely exhibited, until it reappeared at auction in 2010. GIA graded the stone Fancy Intense Pink and Type IIa, a classification reserved for the chemically purest diamonds, representing roughly the top two percent of all diamonds by structural purity.

The 2010 Sale That Made Headlines

Sotheby's Geneva sold the diamond for a hammer price of approximately $46 million, making it the most expensive jewel ever sold at auction at that time and setting a per-carat world record for any gemstone. Laurence Graff mounted it in a platinum ring flanked by two shield-shaped diamonds and placed it on public exhibition under the Graff name.

"Type IIa clarity of structure and Fancy Intense Pink color are two independent rarity factors that happened to combine in one stone. Either alone would make a diamond notable; together, they are what pushed the Graff Pink past its own estimate."

A Reference Point for Pink Diamond Buyers

The Graff Pink's long stretch of anonymous private ownership is a reminder of how much of the fancy color diamond market moves outside of any public record. Auction results like this one remain valuable precisely because they are the exception: verifiable, third-party price data in a market where most transactions never become public. Browse our pink diamond guide for GIA-certified stock at accessible wholesale carat weights.