The Eternal Pink

A late find at a closing mine

The Eternal Pink began as a 23.78-carat rough diamond recovered by De Beers at the Damtshaa mine in Botswana. Damtshaa belongs to Debswana, the partnership between De Beers and the government of Botswana, and lies about 20 kilometers east of the Orapa kimberlite pipe; its ore is processed at, and the mine managed from, its sister mine at Orapa.

Damtshaa opened on October 25, 2003, an open pit cut into four kimberlite pipes, with a projected life of about 31 years. It did not. It closed in 2020 because its diamonds were mostly low in quality and cost too much to mine.

Sources disagree on when the rough was found. An auction house article says it was unearthed in 2020; a report on the cutter's site says the rough was discovered in 2019 and gives its weight as 23.87 carats rather than the 23.78 carats stated in most accounts.

Six months on the wheel

The rough went to Diacore, a diamond manufacturer whose site lists facilities in Johannesburg, Gaborone, New York and Windhoek. Its artisans spent six months turning the 23.78-carat crystal into a 10.57-carat cushion shape, losing more than half the original weight. Accounts of the cutting describe the aim as bringing out the stone's electric "bubblegum" pink.

The finished stone was graded by the Gemological Institute of America as Fancy Vivid Purplish Pink, Internally Flawless. Fancy Vivid is the most intense color grade; one report says only about 4 percent of pink diamonds reach it. Colored diamonds of any kind make up less than 3 percent of the diamonds the GIA examines, and the selling house noted that in decades of research the GIA had encountered vanishingly few stones graded Fancy Vivid Purplish Pink.

Unlike blue diamonds, colored by boron, or yellow diamonds, colored by nitrogen, the exact cause of pink color in diamonds is still largely a mystery.

A world tour before the sale

The Eternal Pink was shown to the press in New York on March 27, 2023, mounted in a ring between white diamonds, and offered with an estimate in excess of $35 million, about $3.3 million a carat. Quig Bruning, head of jewelry for the Americas at the selling house, called its color "the most beautiful and concentrated shade of pink in diamonds that I have ever seen or has ever come to market," and compared it to a work far rarer than a Magritte or a Warhol.

Before the sale it traveled to buyers on a long tour: Hong Kong from April 1 to 7, then Taipei, mainland China, Singapore, Geneva and Dubai.

The estimate implied a price per carat close to the top of the market. The benchmark at the time was the 11.15-carat Williamson Pink Star, sold in Hong Kong in October 2022 for about $57.7 million, or about $5.2 million per carat.

The June 2023 sale

On June 8, 2023, the Eternal Pink sold at auction in New York for $34.8 million, about $3.3 million per carat, a little below its $35 million estimate. It became the most valuable purplish pink diamond ever sold at auction, beating the previous record for the color grade, held by a 10.64-carat Fancy Vivid Purplish Pink that sold in 2019 for $19.9 million, about $1.9 million per carat.

It did not pass the Williamson Pink Star's per-carat price. Among all pink diamonds sold at auction it ranks behind three larger results: the 59.60-carat CTF Pink Star at $71.2 million in April 2017, the Williamson Pink Star in October 2022, and a 23.88-carat pink diamond at $46 million in November 2010.

The same evening, a 55.22-carat ruby from Mozambique sold for the same $34.8 million, the first time two stones had passed $30 million in a single sale at that house. The buyer of the Eternal Pink has not been named, and the stone remains in private hands.

How to know it

Identification starts with the grading report: 10.57 carats, cushion mixed cut, Fancy Vivid Purplish Pink, Internally Flawless. The combination of a Fancy Vivid purplish pink color and a weight above 10 carats is extremely rare; only a handful of such stones are known to the GIA.

Its story is also traceable at both ends: a named mine, Damtshaa, a named producer, De Beers, a named rough of 23.78 carats and a named cutter, Diacore. It sold once, in New York in 2023, and its buyer has not been named.

The numbers

Carat weight

10.57 carats (from 23.78-carat rough)

Color and clarity

Fancy Vivid Purplish Pink, Internally Flawless (GIA)

Origin mine

Damtshaa, Botswana (Debswana)

Cutter

Diacore, six months of cutting

Shape

Cushion mixed cut

Timeline

1. Oct 25, 2003

   The Damtshaa mine in Botswana opens; its ore is processed at its sister mine, Orapa.

2. 2019

   Discovery year of the rough according to one report; other accounts give 2020.

3. 2020

   The rough, 23.78 carats, is recovered by De Beers at Damtshaa, according to the selling house. The mine closes the same year.

4. Oct 2022

   The 11.15-carat Williamson Pink Star sells in Hong Kong for about $57.7 million, the per-carat benchmark the Eternal Pink would be measured against.

5. Mar 27, 2023

   Unveiled to the press in New York with an estimate in excess of $35 million.

6. Apr 1, 2023

   Goes on view in Hong Kong through April 7, the first stop of a buyers' tour that also takes in Taipei, mainland China, Singapore, Geneva and Dubai.

7. Jun 8, 2023

   Sold at auction in New York for $34.8 million, a record for a purplish pink diamond. A 55.22-carat ruby sells for the same price in the same sale.

The world in 2023

• Apr 4, 2023

  Finland becomes the 31st member of NATO.

• Apr 20, 2023

  SpaceX's Starship launches for the first time and explodes four minutes into its test flight.

• May 1, 2023

  First Republic Bank fails and is sold to JPMorgan Chase, the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history.

• May 5, 2023

  The World Health Organization ends COVID-19's status as a global health emergency.

• May 6, 2023

  Charles III and Camilla are crowned at Westminster Abbey.

• Jun 6, 2023

  The Nova Kakhovka dam in Russian-controlled Kherson is destroyed, two days before the sale.

• Jun 18, 2023

  The Titan submersible implodes on a dive to the wreck of the Titanic, killing all five aboard.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, The Eternal Pink is number 11 of 100 in the jewelry entries of the FLOAT 100. 44 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (10 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The cutters gave up more than half the rough's weight, 23.78 carats down to 10.57, to bring out the color.
• Only about 4 percent of pink diamonds earn the Fancy Vivid grade, according to one report.
• Scientists know boron makes diamonds blue and nitrogen makes them yellow, but the exact cause of pink color is still largely a mystery.
• It sold for exactly the same $34.8 million as a record ruby offered in the same sale.
• A jewelry specialist compared it to something far rarer than a Magritte or a Warhol.
• The mine it came from opened in 2003 and closed in 2020, decades ahead of its projected life.