Sotheby’s Hits a Record-Setting $460.5 Million for 2012 Jewelry Sales

Beau Sancy diamond, one of the most important royal diamonds ever to come to auction, was one the Sotheby's biggest sales for 2012, fetching $9.7 million.

Sotheby’s marked its highest-ever total for a year of jewelry sales in 2012, achieving $460.5 million. Statement diamonds and private jewelry collections fetched the strongest results for the year. Auction locations throughout the world posted strong results.

Among the 2012 highlights:

* Sotheby’s Geneva set a new world auction record for any various-owner jewelry sale in May at $108.4 million.

* Across its worldwide salesrooms, Sotheby’s jewelry auctions sold an average of 84 percent by lot.

* 72 lots sold for more than $1 million, with six of those lots selling above $5 million.

* Sotheby’s saw its highest-ever total for a day of jewelry sales in the Americas, when its December auctions in New York reached $64.8 million

* Sotheby’s annual total of $114.5 million in Hong Kong marked the company’s second-biggest year of jewelry and jadeite sales in Asia.

* Prominent private collections fueled strong sale results, including jewels owned by Brooke Astor, Estée Lauder, Evelyn H. Lauder, Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, Suzanne Belperron and Michael Wellby.

* Two rare “white glove” auctions—“Jewels from the Personal Collection of Suzanne Belperron” in Geneva in May, and “The Jewellery Collection of the Late Michael Wellby” in London in December—sold 100 percent by lot.

Among the individual sale highlights:

* A 10.48-carat fancy deep blue diamond (pictured left) sold for more than $10.8 million—establishing a new world record price per carat for any deep blue diamond at auction ($1.03 million per carat) and a world record price for any briolette diamond at auction. The diamond was purchased by Laurence Graff.

The Beau Sancy, the property of the royal house of Prussia, sold for $9.7 million. The 34.98 carat modified pear double rose cut diamond—with its 400 years of royal history—was one of the most important royal diamonds ever to come to auction. 

* A fancy intense 6.54-carat flawless pink diamond and diamond ring by Oscar Heyman & Brothers from the Collection of Evelyn H. Lauder (left), sold for $8.6 million to benefit The Breast Cancer Research Foundation. It was the top lot in a December sale from the collections of Estée Lauder and Evelyn H. Lauder that benefitted the foundation founded by Evelyn Lauder. The collections together sold for more than $22. 2 million, well above its overall high estimate of $18 million.

* An 8.01-carat square emerald-cut fancy vivid blue diamond (left) set on a diamond ring sold for $12.7 million—the second-highest price per carat for any fancy vivid blue diamond at auction.

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