Pursuits
Sotheby’s Diamond Buyer Defaults on Record $83 Million Buy
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In a Sotheby’s auction in November, a New York diamond cutter defeated three bidders to win the most expensive gemstone ever. Yesterday, the auction house said the buyer couldn’t pay.
The 59.6 carat oval-cut pink diamond, which fetched $83.2 million in a transaction guaranteed by Sotheby’s, was acquired by the auction house after the buyer defaulted. The stone is recorded in Sotheby’s inventory at about $72 million, the U.S. dollar equivalent of the corresponding purchase price in Swiss francs, Sotheby’s said yesterday on a conference call.