The Most Expensive Diamonds Ever Sold at Auction, Ranked

Before you can understand what makes a diamond worth $71 million, you have to reckon with scarcity on a geological scale. Fancy vivid color grades are awarded to fewer than one in ten thousand diamonds. Internal flawlessness in a stone that size borders on statistical impossibility. And yet, the auction records that follow aren't aberrations; they're the logical conclusion of rarity meeting capital. These are the most expensive diamonds ever sold at auction, ranked by hammer price.

1. CTF Pink Star: $71.2 million

The CTF Pink Star holds the record for not only the most expensive pink diamond but also for the most expensive gemstone or jewel ever sold at auction, selling for an astounding $71.2 million at Sotheby's Hong Kong in April 2017. After five minutes of bidding at Sotheby's, the oval-shaped 59.60-carat pink diamond broke the record for the highest price ever paid for a jewel. The stone was first auctioned in 2013, when it was bought by New York diamond cutter Isaac Wolf for a group of investors for $83 million; when the group defaulted on payment, it was returned to Sotheby's. At the re-auction in 2017, Chow Tai Fook Enterprises secured the diamond and the chairman renamed it the CTF Pink Star.

2. Williamson Pink Star: $57.7 million

Sitting just behind the CTF Pink Star, the 11.15-carat Williamson Pink Star was sold for $57.7 million to a private collector in a stand-alone auction at Sotheby's Hong Kong in 2022. The cushion-cut fancy vivid pink stone began life as a 32.32-carat rough discovered at the Williamson mine in Tanzania and was classified as internally flawless by the GIA, who described it as "amongst the rarest of all gemstones." That per-carat price, more than $5.1 million per carat, towers over the records set by other pink diamonds and stands as the highest price per carat ever paid for any diamond or gemstone at auction.

3. Oppenheimer Blue: $57.5 million

Sold for $57.5 million at Christie's Geneva in 2016, the Oppenheimer Blue diamond was named after Sir Philip Oppenheimer, who was a significant individual in the diamond industry. The Oppenheimer Blue is 14.62 carats and is an emerald-cut fancy vivid blue diamond. As the largest vivid blue diamond to ever appear at auction at the time, it sold for a dizzying $57.5 million in Geneva, with bidders competing for a stone whose classical rectangular proportions amplify its saturated color to extraordinary effect.

4. Winston Pink Legacy: $50.3 million

Harry Winston's jeweler purchased this jaw-dropping pink diamond for a record $50.66 million at Christie's in Geneva in 2018, renaming it "The Winston Pink Legacy." The $2.6 million per carat price set a new high-water mark for fancy vivid pink diamonds at the time, a record that would stand until the Williamson Pink Star appeared four years later. At 18.96 carats with VS1 clarity, the rectangular-cut gem was purchased at the top end of its $30 million to $50 million pre-sale estimate.

5. Blue Moon of Josephine: $48.4 million

Originally a 29.62-carat rough unearthed in South Africa in 2014, the faceted Blue Moon weighed 12.03 carats when it went to auction at Sotheby's Hong Kong in 2015. Considered one of the most flawless and intense blue diamonds ever discovered, it was bought by local billionaire Joseph Lau for his daughter, Josephine, for $48.4 million and renamed in her honour. The same day, Lau purchased a vivid pink diamond for $28.7 million, shelling out a whopping $77 million for both gems.

6. Graff Pink: $46 million

This fancy intense pink diamond weighing 24.78 carats remains one of the most valuable pinks to date, sold by Sotheby's Geneva in November 2010 to British jeweler Laurence Graff, who gave it his name. Described by the chairman of Sotheby's International Jewellery Division as "one of the most desirable diamonds I have ever seen," the emerald-cut jewel is mounted on a platinum band and framed by a diamond on each side. The GIA stated that the stone, which had been in private hands for 60 years, may be potentially flawless after repolishing, a quality distinction almost unheard of for a colored diamond of this size.

7. Bleu Royal: $43.8 million

The Bleu Royal made its auction debut at Christie's in Geneva in November 2023 and sold for an impressive $43.8 million. After an intense seven-minute bidding round between three potential buyers, it was snapped up by an anonymous private collector, outpacing a pre-sale estimate of around $35 million. At 17.61 carats, fancy vivid blue, and internally flawless, it was the largest fancy vivid blue diamond ever to come to auction, set in a ring flanked by two 3-carat white diamonds, and christened the most expensive jewel sold at auction anywhere in 2023.

8. Princie Diamond: $39.3 million

The Princie Diamond, a 34.65-carat cushion-cut fancy intense pink diamond, achieved $39.3 million at Christie's New York in April 2013. While it failed to reach the estimates placed upon it, it still sold for an impressive $39.3 million, which at the time made it the most expensive diamond to be sold by that auction house. The stone is now held by the Qatari royal family, making it one of the few auction trophies with a confirmed and storied post-sale provenance.

9. Eternal Pink: $34.8 million

The Eternal Pink sold for $34.8 million at Sotheby's New York in June 2023. Only five bids were received during the live auction before the hammer fell. The buyer's identity remains unknown. Its appearance in New York rather than Geneva or Hong Kong was notable; most top-tier colored diamonds find their buyers in the Asian market, making this sale a reminder that serious collectors exist across every continent.

10. Cullinan Dream: $25.4 million

Named after the largest gem-quality rough diamond ever discovered, the Cullinan Dream is a 24.18-carat fancy intense blue diamond. The stone was part of a larger 122.52-carat rough diamond and was later transformed into a pear-shaped gem. It was sold at a Christie's auction in 2016 for an impressive $25.4 million. While it ranks last here on price, context matters: a 24-carat blue pear shape selling for $25 million is extraordinary by any market standard, and the stone's direct lineage from the Cullinan mining heritage lends it a provenance that resonates far beyond the sale room.

Taken together, this list charts more than a decade of price discovery in the top tier of the colored diamond market. Pink and blue stones dominate because their fancy vivid grades are so astronomically rare; white diamonds, however spectacular in size, simply cannot command the per-carat premiums that color achieves. What the CTF Pink Star represents, beyond its $71.2 million headline, is a ceiling that the market has yet to seriously challenge. The stone that breaks it will need not just size and color, but a story compelling enough to make three phone bidders fight for it.