The auction house at Christie has encountered the largest colourless diamond to have appeared for auction in the last 18 years. The diamond is a VVS1 F-colour 101.27 carat stone, measuring 28.62 x 33.54 x 19.86 mm. It is expected to have a sale price of over $6 million. Christie will offer this diamond at a jewellery sale in Hong Kong on May 28, considering the upcoming Asian luxury market. The diamond has been cut from a 460 carat rough diamond found at the Premier mine in South Africa.

“Only three colourless diamonds of over 100 carats have ever appeared at auction, all sold in Geneva,” said Christie’s chairman of jewellery Francois Curiel. Sotheby holds a gemstone which garnered $16.5 million for the 100.1-carat “Star of the Season'” pear-shaped colourless diamond in Geneva in May 1995.