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228 carat dıamond sold for $22 mıllıon at chrıstıe’s auctıon

A 228-carat stone made history as the largest white diamond ever to sell at auction, raking in nearly $22 million at Christie’s Magnificent Jewels in Geneva.

The pear-shaped, 228.31-carat, G-color, VS1-clarity diamond, called The Rock, fetched $21.9 million at the May 11 auction, within its presale estimate of $20 million to $30 million, Christie’s said Wednesday. It beat the previous record holder for a white diamond — a 163.41-carat stone Christie’s sold for $33.7 million in Geneva in 2017.

In total, the sale garnered $69.7 million, with 92% of items finding buyers.

Also scoring big was the cushion-shaped, 205.07-carat, fancy-intense-yellow Red Cross diamond. The stone, fashioned from a 375-carat rough found at a De Beers mine in South Africa in 1901, fetched $14.3 million. A portion of the revenue from that sale will be given to the International Committee of the Red Cross, Christie’s noted.