'The Rock', world's largest white diamond, set to go on auction, details here

(Photo credit: Reuters)

The world’s largest white diamond ‘The Rock’ will go to auction in Geneva next week. This is the largest white diamond to ever get auctioned. It will be a part of a sale by Christie`s that features two stones weighing more than 200 carats each, Reuters reported

The stone is expected to sell up for a value of up to $30 million.

All about ‘The Rock’

‘The Rock, which is a 228.31 carat pear-shaped stone, is roughly the size of a golf ball.  It is a perfectly symmetrical pear-shaped form and one of the rarest gems ever to be sold at auction.

Mined in South Africa, "The Rock" was worn by its former owner as a Cartier necklace. The previous auction record for a white diamond was a 163.41-carat gem sold in 2017.

Diamond prices have been buoyed by sanctions on major producer Russia as well as the return of VIP events as pandemic restrictions unwind.

Other stones to go on auction

Christie`s is also selling a 205.07-carat yellow, cushion-shaped stoned named ‘The Red Cross Diamond’ since an unspecified portion of the auction proceeds will go to the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

The gem, which has a Maltese cross faceted at its base, was first sold by Christie`s in 1918 at a London auction where residents sold precious household items to help the war effort. Those proceeds, 10,000 pounds (now $12,350), helped the British Red Cross Society. Its estimated selling price today is between $7 million and $10 million, Fawcett said.

An ICRC spokesperson said that this time, a portion of the proceeds from the sale would go to bringing clean water to people affected by conflict.

"Often with these largest stones, they sacrifice some of the shapes in order to keep the weight," Max Fawcett, the head of Christie`s jewellery department in Geneva, told Reuters.

(With inputs from Reuters)