How to Set a Value on the World’s Rarest Gems

[Financial Times, London] Intensely coloured — or “fancy” — diamonds have long fetched high prices at auction, but in recent years those prices have soared. In 1960, Van Cleef & Arpels bought a 300-year-old rare pink diamond, from India’s Golconda mines, at Sotheby’s in London for $70,000 (equivalent to $555,000 at today’s prices). It weighed 34.64 carats and was known as the Princie. The stone sold again in 2013 at auction for $39m.

Read the article @ FT: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5e7dbafe-7bdb-11e4-a695-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3Qbwn9sEJ