24-Karat ‘Fancy Intense Pink’ Diamond Ring Goes to Auction Block

Christie’s “Magnificent Jewels” sale during Autumn Luxury Week in Geneva will include a storied “Fancy Intense Pink” diamond ring made by Bulgari in the 1950s. The estimate for the lot, to be auctioned off on November 10, is $12 million–$18 million.

According to a press release, the 24-karat diamond was acquired in India by the current owner’s great-grandfather and given to Bulgari to be set into a piece of jewelry around the time that Rome, the house’s base since its founding in the 19th century, was a center of postwar glamour. The “distinguished European noble family” that commissioned the ring held onto the ring for more than 70 years, per the release.

“With major Hollywood productions filming at Cinecittà Studios, international stars gathered in the city, creating what became known as ‘Hollywood on the Tiber,’” the release reads, “Bulgari’s boutique at Via Condotti became a social and cultural meeting point, welcoming many of the world’s most renowned celebrities, including Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, Audrey Hepburn and Mel Ferrer, to name two Hollywood couples.”

The diamond is classified as Type IIa, a distinction applied to fewer than two percent of diamonds in the world, and its hue earned it the “coveted Fancy Pink color grade.” According to a report in Forbes about the Christie’s sale, “Pink diamonds owe their color to a rare distortion of the crystal lattice caused by intense pressure during their formation within the Earth. The structural deformation alters the way light passes through the diamond, producing its distinctive pink hue.”