An exceptional yellow diamond will be on auction at Sotheby's Geneva Sale next Tuesday with an estimated price of 11 to 15 million U.S. dollars, the highest ever of its kind, the auction house said on Wednesday.
Weighing 110.3 carats, "the Sun-Drop Diamond" is the largest known pear-shaped fancy vivid yellow diamond in the world.
In recent years, colored diamonds have come forward on markets. Last year, Sotheby's had sold a pink diamond named "Graff Pink" at 46 million dollars, the highest price ever achieved at auction for a diamond and any jewel.
"Any diamond over 100 carats is rare, that one of this color is off the scale," David Bennett, Chairman of Sotheby's International Jewellery Division Europe and Middle East, told Xinhua.
The rough stone for "the Sun-Drop Diamond" was discovered last year in South Africa. It was cut and polished by the owners and shortly after offered for sale.
The Tuesday sale will also present a unique suite of imperial jewels, originally offered by the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II for the birth of the last Khedive of Egypt and Sudan in 1874.
These imperial jewels were also believed to have formed part of a gift from Empress Catherine I of Russia to Sultan Ahemed III to end the Siege of Pruth in 1711.
