Rapaport, December 16, 2009: Retail Sales Stable, Big Diamonds Sell

RAPAPORT...

Online retail sales from November 1 through December 13 have increased 4 percent to $21 billion, according to e-commerce tracking firm comScore. The Christmas season spending during this past week, which ended December 13, hit a record at $4.74 billion. The previous weekly record was $4.7 billion and occurred two years ago during the week ending December 16, 2007.

Christie's New York sale of jewels and Magnificent Jewels from a distinguished private collector earned $25,178,025 and was 85 percent sold by lot.

The top lot of the sale was the Evening Star Diamond, a 39ct., D, pear-shaped diamond from the ancient Golconda mines of India. The Evening Star, which is shown in the video, sold for $5.4 million or $138,000 per carat.

Other highlights in the video broadcast show a modified rectangular-cut fancy intense blue diamond of 7.02cts, VS1, which sold for $3,890,500; a rectangular cut-cornered fancy intense yellow diamond of 20.42cts, which sold for $746,500; a graduated cushion-cut diamond riviere, by William Goldberg, set with 51 graduated diamonds, weighing 109.76cts, which sold for $530,500; and a rectangular-cut diamond of 36.78cts, D, IF, which sold for $3,386,500. Christie's also held a special auction for Bulgari and two magnificent necklaces are discussed in the video.


Rahul Kadakia, head of jewelry at Christies New York, said of the sale: The diamond market continues to show remarkable strength despite the volatility of the financial world. Just two weeks after a very strong sale of jewels at Christies Hong Kong - where a 5 carat pink diamond went for $10.8 million - the exceptional Evening Star Golconda diamond of 39 carats sold at Christies New York for $5.4 million. It was a fitting grand finale to a year that saw over $100 million in jewels change hands under our gavels in the U.S.

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Tags:

• retail
• christie's
• comscore
• online
• sales
• diamonds
• jewelry
• evening
• star
• auction
• bulgari

[ragemanchoo82]

Christies calls those sales "Jewels: The [insert name of city] Sale" now, rather than "Magnificent Jewels"