FLOAT 100 · Jewelry · No. 7

The Graff Pink

A nameless pink diamond that Harry Winston sold in the 1950s vanished into one private collection for some sixty years, then reappeared in Geneva in 2010, sold for about $46 million to a London jeweler who dared to polish it again and made it better.

Year: sold 2010
By price in jewelry: 7 of 100

Realized at auction · Nov 16, 2010$45,790,508A realized sale: somebody paid it.

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Weight when sold: 24.78 carats, emerald cut with rounded corners
Grade when sold: Fancy Intense Pink; the GIA noted it could become flawless with repolishing
Type: IIa, the chemically purest class of diamond
Setting in 2010: Platinum ring flanked by two shield-shaped diamonds
Earlier owner: Harry Winston, the New York jeweler, who sold it in the 1950s to a private collector
Sold: November 16, 2010, at auction in Geneva, about $46 million (45.44 million Swiss francs)
Buyer: Laurence Graff, London jeweler, who named it the Graff Pink
After repolishing: 23.88 carats, Fancy Vivid Pink, Internally Flawless, per Graff
Record: Most expensive single jewel sold at auction until November 2015

A stone with no name

For most of its known life the Graff Pink had no name at all. The earliest owner the record names is Harry Winston, the New York jeweler, who sold the stone in the 1950s to a private collector. It then stayed in that collection, out of sight, until 2010. Where and when it was mined, and who first cut it, are not stated in the sources reviewed for this page.

When it resurfaced it was a rectangular emerald cut with rounded corners, weighing 24.78 carats and set in a platinum ring between two shield-shaped diamonds. The Gemological Institute of America graded its color Fancy Intense Pink and classed it as type IIa, the category of chemically pure diamonds that makes up only a small fraction of all diamonds mined.

The laboratory's report carried a note that would decide the stone's future: its clarity was such that, with repolishing, it could be flawless. One account describes the flaw as imperceptible to the human eye. Sources disagree on the original clarity grade, giving it variously as VS1 and VVS2, so this page does not state one.

Geneva, November 2010

The pink was offered at auction in Geneva on November 16, 2010, with a pre-sale estimate of $27 million to $38 million. It had not been on the market for some sixty years. It sold for 45.44 million Swiss francs, reported as $46 million and, in later accounts, $46.2 million.

That made it, at the time, the most expensive single jewel ever sold at auction. It also outran the previous jewel record that its buyer had set himself: about $24 million for the 35.56-carat Wittelsbach blue diamond in December 2008. The whole Geneva sale that night brought $105 million, above its estimate of $67 million to $97 million.

The auctioneer, David Bennett, called it one of the most desirable diamonds he had seen in a 35-year career. The buyer went further: Laurence Graff called it "the most fabulous diamond I've seen" in his career.

The jeweler who bought it

Laurence Graff founded his firm in London in 1960 and built it from humble beginnings into a jeweler that controls its own cutting, design, manufacturing and retail. In 1973 it became the first jeweler to receive the Queen's Award for Industry and Export.

Graff had a habit of buying famous stones and improving them. After acquiring the Wittelsbach blue, he had it repolished to repair its weathered surface and improve its color. The firm counts 2010 as the year three remarkable diamonds joined its collection: the 102.79-carat Graff Constellation, the 118.08-carat Delaire Sunrise, and the pink he named after himself.

Polishing a record diamond

Repolishing a stone that has just set a world price record is a risk: every fraction of a carat removed is gone for good. Graff's own account says his master cutters began by polishing away 25 inclusions close to the surface, then worked to push the color into the highest grade for pink diamonds.

The result, Graff says, is a 23.88-carat Fancy Vivid Pink, Internally Flawless, type IIa diamond. The stone gave up about 0.9 carat. One account says the work took weeks.

Accounts of the stone written before the repolishing still give its original grade, Fancy Intense Pink at 24.78 carats; Graff's own description of the finished stone is the 23.88-carat Fancy Vivid Pink, Internally Flawless figure used here. To identify it, the markers are an emerald cut of 23.88 carats, an Internally Flawless pink of type IIa, and its 24.78-carat history.

The record it set and the ones that followed

The Graff Pink held the auction record for a jewel for five years. In November 2015 the 12.03-carat Blue Moon broke it in the same city, and press reports of that sale cited the Graff Pink's $46.2 million as the mark it beat.

Pink diamonds kept climbing. A list of the most expensive pinks names the 59.60-carat CTF Pink Star at $71.2 million in April 2017 and the 11.15-carat Williamson Pink Star at $57.5 million in October 2022. The Graff Pink was described as the first diamond to cross the $40 million mark at auction.

The numbers

Carat weight: 24.78 carats when sold in 2010; 23.88 carats after repolishing
Color and clarity: Fancy Intense Pink when sold; Fancy Vivid Pink, Internally Flawless after repolishing (per Graff)
Diamond type: IIa
Origin mine: Not documented in the sources reviewed
Cutter: Original cutter not documented; repolished by Graff's master cutters after 2010
Shape: Emerald cut with rounded corners

Timeline

1950
In the 1950s, Harry Winston sells the unnamed 24.78-carat pink to a private collector.
1960
Laurence Graff founds his jewelry firm in London.
1973
Graff becomes the first jeweler to receive the Queen's Award for Industry and Export.
Dec 2008
Graff pays about $24 million for the Wittelsbach blue diamond, then a jewel auction record.
Nov 16, 2010
The pink sells at auction in Geneva for 45.44 million Swiss francs, about $46 million, to Laurence Graff.
2010
Graff names it the Graff Pink; his cutters remove 25 near-surface inclusions.
2010
Repolished to 23.88 carats, Fancy Vivid Pink, Internally Flawless, per Graff.
Nov 11, 2015
The Blue Moon diamond sells in Geneva for about $48.4 million, ending the Graff Pink's run as the auction record for a jewel.

The world in 2010

Jan 4, 2010
The Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the tallest structure ever built, officially opens.
Jan 12, 2010
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake devastates Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Apr 3, 2010
The first iPad goes on sale.
Apr 20, 2010
The Deepwater Horizon rig explodes in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers.
May 2, 2010
The eurozone and the IMF agree to a 110 billion euro bailout for Greece.
Jul 11, 2010
Spain wins the FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
Nov 11, 2010
G20 leaders meet in Seoul, days before the Geneva sale.

Price record

$10,000,000$100,000,000

Date	Price	Kind
Nov 16, 2010	$27,000,000	Estimate, not a saleLow end of the pre-sale estimate of $27 million to $38 million.
Nov 16, 2010	$46,200,000	Sold at auctionSold at auction in Geneva for 45.44 million Swiss francs. Reported at the time as $46 million; later reports give $46.2 million.

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 Graff Pink is number 7 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 (7 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

The stone had no name until its 2010 buyer named it after himself.
Repolishing removed 25 inclusions near the surface and about 0.9 carat of weight.
The buyer had set the previous jewel auction record himself, with the Wittelsbach blue in December 2008.
It sold in a platinum ring flanked by two shield-shaped diamonds.
It had spent some sixty years in one private collection before the 2010 sale.

How this page is made

The figure: One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
Realized or not: A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
The story: Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 1, 2026.
Archive: Oct 5, 2026