A rare diamond known as the Pink Star has been bought by well-known Hong Kong jewellery company Chow Tai Fook by paying a record price of HK$553 million (US$71.2 million), thus setting a new world record for any gemstone at auction.

The oval-shaped 59.6 carat stone measuring 2.69cm by 2.06cm and set in a ring, was bought after just five minutes' bidding at Sotheby's, reports said. It is the largest “internally flawless fancy vivid pink” diamond ever graded by the Gemological Institute of America, the industry arbiter, and more than twice the size of the 24.8-carat Graff Pink, the previous record holder for the most expensive pink diamond which fetched US$46.2 million including fees in Geneva in 2010.It sold for $83m in Geneva in 2013 but the buyer later defaulted. The record until now was held by the Oppenheimer Blue, which sold for $50m in May 2016.

Bidding for the gem, which was found by De Beers at a mine in Africa in 1999 and cut over a period of two years, began at $56m.