Big fancy-colored diamondsare going to auction again and again. Sotheby's has brought out "The Golden Canary," a 303-carat yellow diamondwill be sold at auction without reserve.
A 303.10-carat fancy deep brownish-yellow diamond, just days after announcing a group of eight blue diamonds.
Sotheby's says it is one of the largest polished diamonds in the world and the largest flawless or internally flawless diamond ever graded by the Gemological Institute of America.
Its Interesting History Makes It Even More Interesting
In the early 1980s, a young girl in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was playing in her uncle's backyard when she found the Golden Canary in a pile of rubble.
Sotheby's said that at the time, miners from the nearby Miba diamond thought the rubble was too big to have diamonds in it, so they threw it away. It turned out to have an 890-carat rough diamond in it.
The girl gave the stone to her uncle, who turned around and sold it to diamond dealers in the area.
The rough diamond was first shown to the public in 1984 at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. It was put on display with some of the most famous diamonds in the world, and it quickly became a worldwide sensation.
Over the next five years, it was cut into 15 finished stones. The largest was a shield-shaped, deep brownish-yellow fancy diamond that weighed 407.49 carats and used to be called the "Incomparable Diamond."
The Incomparable has been in many museums shows around the world, including "The Nature of Diamonds" at the American Museum of Natural History in New York in 1997, "Diamants" at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris in 2001, and "The Nature of Diamonds," which traveled to the Royal Ontario Museum and the Houston Museum of Science in 2008.
The stone was eventually recut to make its color deeper, its hue brighter, and its shape better. The result is what is now called "The Golden Canary."
Bids Starting At US$1 Million
The 303 Carat Golden Canary Diamond Up For Auction At Sotheby's Episode #22
In December, Sotheby's in New York will auction off a yellow diamond with no flaws that weigh more than 303 carats. According to barrons.com, the bidding starts at US$1 million, and the auction house thinks it could sell for somewhere between US$15 million and US$20 million.
Sotheby's says that the gemstone is one of the largest cut and polished diamonds in the world and the largest flawless or internally flawless diamond ever graded by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA). It is called the Golden Canary because of its rich brownish-yellow color.