Sotheby’s Hits a Record-Setting $460.5 Million for 2012 Jewelry Sales

Beau Sancy diamond, one of the most important royal diamonds ever to come to auction, was one the Sotheby's biggest sales for 2012, fetching $9.7 million.

Sotheby’s marked its highest-ever total for a year of jewelry sales in 2012, achieving $460.5 million. Statement diamonds and private jewelry collections fetched the strongest results for the year. Auction locations throughout the world posted strong results.

Among the 2012 highlights:

* Sotheby’s Geneva set a new world auction record for any various-owner jewelry sale in May at $108.4 million.

* Across its worldwide salesrooms, Sotheby’s jewelry auctions sold an average of 84 percent by lot.

* 72 lots sold for more than $1 million, with six of those lots selling above $5 million.

* Sotheby’s saw its highest-ever total for a day of jewelry sales in the Americas, when its December auctions in New York reached $64.8 million

* Sotheby’s annual total of $114.5 million in Hong Kong marked the company’s second-biggest year of jewelry and jadeite sales in Asia.

* Prominent private collections fueled strong sale results, including jewels owned by Brooke Astor, Estée Lauder, Evelyn H. Lauder, Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, Suzanne Belperron and Michael Wellby.

* Two rare “white glove” auctions—“Jewels from the Personal Collection of Suzanne Belperron” in Geneva in May, and “The Jewellery Collection of the Late Michael Wellby” in London in December—sold 100 percent by lot.

Among the individual sale highlights:

* A 10.48-carat fancy deep blue diamond (pictured left) sold for more than $10.8 million—establishing a new world record price per carat for any deep blue diamond at auction ($1.03 million per carat) and a world record price for any briolette diamond at auction. The diamond was purchased by Laurence Graff.

The Beau Sancy, the property of the royal house of Prussia, sold for $9.7 million. The 34.98 carat modified pear double rose cut diamond—with its 400 years of royal history—was one of the most important royal diamonds ever to come to auction. 

* A fancy intense 6.54-carat flawless pink diamond and diamond ring by Oscar Heyman & Brothers from the Collection of Evelyn H. Lauder (left), sold for $8.6 million to benefit The Breast Cancer Research Foundation. It was the top lot in a December sale from the collections of Estée Lauder and Evelyn H. Lauder that benefitted the foundation founded by Evelyn Lauder. The collections together sold for more than $22. 2 million, well above its overall high estimate of $18 million.

* An 8.01-carat square emerald-cut fancy vivid blue diamond (left) set on a diamond ring sold for $12.7 million—the second-highest price per carat for any fancy vivid blue diamond at auction.

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35-Carat Beau Sancy Diamond to be Sold at Sotheby’s

The Beau Sancy is expected to fetch $2 to $4 million.  

Photo credit: AFP - Getty Images

A celebrated 35-carat diamond that has passed through European royalty for hundreds of years will be sold at auction during Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels and Noble Jewels on May 15 in Geneva—on the second day of a two-day sale.

The international auction house says the Beau Sancy is one of the most important historic diamonds ever to come to auction. Passed down through the Royal Families of France, England, Prussia and the House of Orange, the celebrated diamond has witness of 400 years of European history. Weighing 34.98 carats, the modified pear double rose cut diamond comes to the market with an estimate price of $2 to $4 million.

“The Beau Sancy is one of the most fascinating and romantic gems ever to appear at auction and it is an immense privilege for Sotheby’s to handle the sale,” said David Bennett, chairman of Sotheby’s Jewellery Department in Europe and the Middle East and co-chairman of Sotheby’s Switzerland

Acquired by Nicolas de Harlay, Lord of Sancy (1546-1629), in Constantinople in the mid to late 1500s, the Beau Sancy is most likely to have originated from the mines in southcentral India near the city of Golconda, the source of history’s best-known diamonds, including the Hope, the Koh-i-Noor and the Regent. In 1604, the Beau Sancy was purchased by Henri IV of France and gifted to his wife, Marie de Medici. It was mounted atop the crown she wore at her coronation in 1610, as shown in a portrait by Frans II Pourbus, the Younger, now in the Louvre

Following Henri IV’s assassination by Ravaillac, the queen was exiled in disgrace and escaped to the Netherlands. Heavily in debt, her possessions were sold and the Beau Sancy was acquired by Prince Frederick Hendrick of Orange-Nassau (1584-1647). It was the most important expenditure in the state’s budget in 1641. In the same year, in an attempt to reinforce the alliances of the United Provinces of Holland with the great European powers, the diamond was used to seal the arrangement of the wedding of Frederick Hendrick’s son, Willem, later Willem II of Orange Nassau (1631-1660), to Mary Stuart, daughter of Charles I of England and Henriette-Marie of France, and grand-daughter of Marie de Medici.

After the death of her husband, Mary Stuart went to England with her jewels in order to support her brother Charles II in his fight for the throne. In 1662, the Beau Sancy was pawned to settle her debts and it was only in 1677, at the wedding of Willem III of Orange-Nassau (1650-1702) to Mary II Stuart, daughter of the King of England James II, that the diamond reentered the Treasure of the House of Orange-Nassau. In 1689, the couple ascended the throne of England and thus the Beau Sancy now joined the collection of the Queen of England. However, as the monarchs were childless at their death, the diamond went back to the House of Orange-Nassau.

In 1702, following the settlement of a dispute between the heirs to the House of Orange, Friedrich I, who had just been crowned the first King of Prussia, gave up the jewels of his legacy to obtain the Beau Sancy. The king made it the principal ornament of the new royal crown of Prussia and associated it with the first order of Prussia, the Order of the Black Eagle.

The largest gemstone within the House of Prussia’s collection, the Beau Sancy passed down to each successive generation until today. Worn by the women of the family on important royal occasions, the diamond adorned the costume of each successive bride on the day of her princely wedding, much like it had in the past. When the last German Emperor and King of Prussia fled to exile in Holland, in November 1918, the crown jewels remained at the Kaiser’s palace in Berlin. At the end of World War II, the collection was transferred to a bricked-up crypt for safe keeping in Bückeburg, where it was later found by British troops and returned to the estate of the House of Prussia.

After the war, the diamond was subsequently passed down to the eldest son of the Kaiser, Kronprinz Wilhelm (1882-1951) and his son, Prince Louis Ferdinand (1907-1994). After the death of Prince Louis Ferdinand, the diamond was inherited as part of the estate by his grandson, Georg Friedrich (1976-), Prince of Prussia and current head of the Royal House of Prussia.

The Beau Sancy has been shown publicly only four times in the last 50 years: first in 1972, alongside the Grand Sancy in Helsinki, in 1985, in Hamburg at the Schmuck aus dem Hause Hohenzollern exhibition, in 2001, in Paris again alongside the Grand Sancy at the Musée National d’Histoire Naturelle, and finally in 2004, in Munich at the Schatzhäuser Deutschands exhibition.

The Beau Sancy will be showcased in an international tour before its auction in Geneva on May 15, at the following dates and locations:

Hong Kong March 30 - April 2
New York April 14-16
Rome April 19
Paris April 24-25
London April 27-30
Zurich May 2-3
Geneva May 11-15