Sotheby’s Scores over $6M at Hong Kong Jewelry Auction

A sapphire and diamond ring took the top spot at a recent jewelry sale at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong, smashing its high estimate.

The piece, which contains a cushion-shaped, 17.50-carat, royal-blue Burmese sapphire surrounded by marquise-cut diamonds, sold for HKD 2.8 million ($357,226), the auction house said last week. That figure was well above its upper presale price.

In total, the January 31 Important Jewels auction brought in HKD 48.9 million ($6.3 million).

Yellow diamonds performed well at the sale, as did jewels by well-known design houses, including Graff, Cartier, Buccellati, and Van Cleef & Arpels. Sotheby’s also sold several diamonds and both green and lavender jadeite pieces with no reserve.

Here are the other four items rounding out the top five:

This cushion-shaped, 14.51-carat, fancy-intense-yellow, VS1-clarity diamond ring by Bulgari went for HKD 2.5 million ($324,751), within its presale estimate.

 

A ring set with an oval-shaped, 7.02-carat, Mozambican ruby center stone, surrounded by oval and pear-shaped diamonds, fetched HKD 2.5 million, just under its HKD 2.6 million ($332,422) upper price.

Sotheby’s sold this Graff bracelet, featuring nine cut-cornered square or rectangular-modified, fancy-intense-yellow diamonds ranging from 1.62 to 5.21 carats and 18 yellow-tinted diamonds for HKD 2.4 million ($308,513), within its estimate.

A pair of earrings, each suspending an oval ruby — one weighing 4.26 carats and the other 4.09 carats —and brilliant-cut diamonds, garnered HKD 1.9 million ($243,563) at the sale, within its presale price range.

Source: DCLA

The gold, diamond, and ruby ring that Tupac Shakur wore days before his death sold at auction for over $1 million

Tupac Shakur’s custom crown-shaped ring, which he wore shortly before he died, sold for nearly $1.02 million Tuesday, becoming the most valuable hip-hop artifact ever sold at auction.

Sotheby’s in New York sold the ring as part of a large sale of hip-hop artifacts, including autographed letters from Shakur and a demo tape for his single “Trapped,” per a press release from the auction house. Prior to auction, the ring was estimated to sell between $200,000 to $300,000.

The lots, meant to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the musical genre, also included memorabilia from many other memorable names — Mos Def, De La Soul, and Wu-Tang Clan, to name a few.

The 14-Karat gold ring, encrusted with diamonds and rubies, features an inscription on the side that reads “Pac & Dada 1996” — a reference to his engagement to actress Kidada Jones.

According to the press release, Yaasmyn Fula, the artist’s godmother, offered the ring for auction, telling Sotheby’s it was custom designed by Pac and assembled by jewelers in New York City following his months behind bars and his newly signed deal with Death Row Records.

“Reflecting his recent affinity for Niccolo Machiavelli’s political manifesto ‘The Prince’ (Tupac would start going by “Makaveli” after reading The Prince while incarcerated), Tupac modeled his design after the crowns of the medieval kings of Europe in ‘an act of self-coronation,’ according to Fula, a celebration of survival through a tumultuous year in an oft tumultuous life,” per the press release.

The ring also appeared on his finger during the September 4, 1996, MTV Video Music Awards — his last public appearance before his tragic murder three days later in Las Vegas.

Source: DCLA