Christie’s jadeite necklace leads Hong Kong jewels sale at HK$200.2 million

Christie’s Hong Kong watched its strongest signal come from a necklace rather than a diamond this spring: The Ethereal Jadeite Necklace, set with 61 perfectly matched jadeite beads and yellow diamonds on the clasp, sold for HK$200.2 million, or $25.6 million. The result made it the most valuable jadeite necklace to sell at auction in a decade, and one of the clearest reminders that in Hong Kong, exceptional colored-gem jewels still command a different tier of attention than generic luxury inventory.

The necklace measured roughly 13.7 mm to 8.8 mm across the strand, a scale that matters because top jadeite is judged bead by bead as much as by the overall composition. Christie’s placed the piece at HK$110 million to HK$200 million, or $15 million to $26 million, before the sale and said it was the most valuable jadeite jewel to appear on the market in more than 10 years. Vickie Sek, Christie’s Asia Pacific jewelry chairman, described it as the pinnacle of jadeite craftsmanship, a formulation that captures both the technical difficulty of finding a strand this even and the cultural weight jadeite carries for collectors across Asia.

The necklace led a Hong Kong Magnificent Jewels sale that totaled HK$581,499,900, or $74.2 million, with 90% sold by lot. Christie’s said the hammer price came in 129% above the low estimate, while 72% of lots sold above their high estimates. The house also tied the result to its 40th anniversary in Asia, positioning the sale not just as a one-night scorecard but as a marker of where high-end demand is concentrating: in rare, well-provenanced jewels that read as collectible assets as much as adornment.

That appetite was visible beyond jadeite. A 1.78-carat oval brilliant-cut fancy purplish red diamond brooch brought HK$39.54 million, while a 3.17-carat rectangular step-cut fancy vivid pink diamond Bulgari Trombino ring sold for HK$25.51 million. Those results suggest the market is still rewarding signature design, colored diamonds, and recognizable names, especially when the stones are scarce and the objects are intact. In Asia, the strongest bids often cluster around pieces that combine gemological rarity with a clear story, and Christie’s said worldwide bidding across channels helped drive the sale.

The jadeite result also landed against a formidable benchmark. The Hutton-Mdivani jadeite necklace, sold by Sotheby’s Hong Kong in 2014 for $27.44 million, remains the category record. Christie’s did not break that mark, but it came close enough to confirm the same hierarchy: for ultra-high-net-worth buyers in Hong Kong, the strongest demand is not chasing quantity or trend, but perfection, provenance, and the kind of heritage object that can outshine even the most polished diamond inventory.