The Sunrise Ruby

The stone

The Sunrise Ruby is a cushion-shaped ruby of 25.59 carats, about 5.1 grams, from Burma, now Myanmar. Its color is the shade the trade calls 'pigeon's blood,' a deep, saturated red. A grading report from the Gubelin laboratory, quoted before the sale, called the stone of Burmese origin and said its color came from 'a combination of well balanced trace elements in the stone, typical and characteristic for the finest rubies of Mogok.'

The report's point was scarcity. Rubies of that quality, it said, generally form only as small crystals, and 'a natural ruby from Burma of this size and color is extremely rare.' Pre-sale coverage quoted the Swiss Gemmological Institute praising the stone's 'well-proportioned cut, highly attractive colour and fine purity.' The phrase 'a unique treasure of nature' is attributed to the Swiss institute in one account and to the Gubelin report in another.

The stone was named after a poem by Rumi, the 13th-century Sufi poet. Coverage of the sale describes it as untreated, meaning it had not been heated to improve its color, which matters a great deal for rubies at this level.

A ring signed Cartier

The ruby is mounted in a platinum ring signed Cartier, set between two white diamonds weighing 2.47 and 2.70 carats. The Associated Press described the side stones as heptagon-shaped; a pre-sale report described them as shield-shaped.

The ring came to auction in 2015 from a private collection of Cartier jewels, according to Reuters. The sellers were not named, and the published sources do not record when the ring was made or who owned it before.

The signature carried a record of its own. When it sold, the ring set a world auction record for any jewel by Cartier, alongside its records for a ruby.

Seven minutes in Geneva

The ring was lot 502 of a jewelry sale in Geneva on May 12, 2015. Its estimate was $12 million to $18 million (11.7 million to 17.5 million Swiss francs). The standing auction record for a ruby was $8.6 million, paid six months earlier for an 8.62-carat Burmese ruby, which also held the per-carat record of $997,727. A pre-sale report noted that the Sunrise Ruby would need to bring more than $25.6 million to take the per-carat record too.

Bidding opened at 11 million Swiss francs, about $11.8 million, and lasted about seven minutes, with two private collectors competing by telephone. It sold for 28.25 million Swiss francs, about $30.42 million by the Reuters conversion; the Associated Press reported $30.3 million.

It set three records at once: the most paid for a ruby, the most per carat for a ruby, and the most for a Cartier jewel. The auctioneer, David Bennett, said it became 'the most expensive coloured gemstone that is not a diamond,' and called it 'the stone of my career.' The ring helped the evening reach $160.9 million, at the time the highest total for any jewelry auction.

The buyer was not named that night. Later reports identified her as Heidi Horten.

Heidi Horten

Heidi Horten was born Heidi Jelinek in Vienna on February 13, 1941. At 19 she met Helmut Horten, 32 years her senior, the founder of the German department store business Horten AG; they married in 1966. Helmut Horten had been a member of the Nazi party, and his wealth is widely described as rooted in Nazi-era profiteering. She inherited it when he died in 1987, and Forbes estimated her net worth at $3.0 billion in 2020.

She was a serious collector of both art and jewels. In 2008 she sold the 35.56-carat Wittelsbach Diamond, once part of the Bavarian crown jewels, for $24 million. She assembled more than 500 artworks and opened a private museum for them in Vienna in 2022.

Horten died on June 12, 2022, at 81. The Sunrise Ruby went to auction as part of her 700-piece jewelry collection, with the proceeds intended for her museum and for medical research.

The second sale

The ring was the top lot of the first live sale of Horten's jewels in Geneva on May 10, 2023, estimated at $15 million to $20 million. It sold for more than 13 million Swiss francs, reported as $14.7 million by one publication and $14.6 million by another, below its low estimate of 14 million Swiss francs and less than half what Horten had paid.

The sale was controversial before it started, because of how Helmut Horten had built his wealth. The auction house said part of its proceeds would go to Holocaust education and related causes. Even so, the first live sale alone brought about $155.5 million, and the first three sales together more than $202 million, a record for a single collection of jewels. On August 31, 2023, the house canceled the remaining sale after Jewish charities and organizations refused to accept money from it.

One columnist noted at the time that, despite the drop, the Sunrise Ruby now held both the highest and second-highest prices ever paid for a ruby at auction.

Dethroned

That distinction lasted less than a month. On June 8, 2023, the Estrela de Fura, a 55.22-carat ruby from the Montepuez mine in Mozambique, sold at auction in New York for $34.8 million, the largest and most expensive ruby ever auctioned.

Its 2015 price was credited at the time to fast-rising prices for colored gemstones, which were beginning to rival colored diamonds at auction. For eight years it was the most expensive ruby, the most expensive colored gemstone and the most expensive gemstone other than a diamond ever sold.

The numbers

Carat weight

25.59 carats (about 5.1 grams)

Color and treatment

'Pigeon's blood' red; reported as untreated

Origin

Burma (Myanmar); the Gubelin report called its color characteristic of the finest rubies of Mogok

Cut

Cushion

Side stones

Two diamonds of 2.47 and 2.70 carats

Cutter

Not disclosed in published reports

Timeline

1. Feb 13, 1941

   Heidi Jelinek, later Heidi Horten, is born in Vienna.

2. 1966

   She marries the department store founder Helmut Horten.

3. 1987

   Helmut Horten dies; his widow inherits his fortune.

4. 2008

   Horten sells the 35.56-carat Wittelsbach Diamond for $24 million.

5. Nov 2014

   An 8.62-carat Burmese ruby sells in Geneva for $8.6 million, setting the ruby record the Sunrise would break.

6. Apr 14, 2015

   Pre-sale coverage quotes a Gubelin report linking the stone's color to the finest rubies of Mogok and gives a $12 million to $18 million estimate.

7. May 6, 2015

   The ring is shown at a preview in Geneva.

8. May 12, 2015

   The Sunrise Ruby sells in Geneva for CHF 28.25 million (about $30.42 million), setting three world auction records.

9. Jun 12, 2022

   Heidi Horten dies at 81.

10. Mar 28, 2023

    Her jewelry collection, including the Sunrise Ruby, is announced for sale in Geneva with an estimate of $15 million to $20 million for the ring.

11. May 10, 2023

    The ring sells again in Geneva for more than CHF 13 million, reported as $14.7 million or $14.6 million.

12. Jun 8, 2023

    The 55.22-carat Estrela de Fura sells in New York for $34.8 million, taking the auction record for a ruby.

13. Aug 31, 2023

    The remaining sale of Horten's jewels is canceled amid the controversy over her husband's fortune.

The world in 2015

• Apr 25, 2015

  A magnitude 7.8 earthquake strikes Nepal, killing more than 9,000 people across the region.

• May 1, 2015

  Expo 2015 opens in Milan, Italy.

• May 7, 2015

  The UK general election gives the Conservatives their first outright majority since 1992.

• May 11, 2015

  Picasso's Les Femmes d'Alger (Version O) sells at auction in New York for $179.4 million, a record for a painting, and Giacometti's L'Homme au doigt brings $141.3 million, a record for a sculpture.

• May 12, 2015

  A second major earthquake, magnitude 7.3, strikes Nepal on the same day as the Geneva sale.

• May 21, 2015

  ISIS captures the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria.

• Jun 18, 2015

  Pope Francis releases the encyclical Laudato si'.

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 Sunrise Ruby is number 15 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 (14 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The Sunrise Ruby takes its name from a poem by the 13th-century Sufi poet Rumi.
• Bidding in 2015 lasted about seven minutes, fought out between two collectors on the telephone.
• Its 2015 price was more than three times the ruby record set just six months earlier.
• When it sold again in 2023 for less than half its 2015 price, it still held the two highest prices ever paid for a ruby at auction, for a few weeks.
• The auctioneer who sold it in 2015 called it 'the stone of my career' after 40 years in the business.
• The ruby that took its record in 2023, the Estrela de Fura, weighs more than twice as much.