The platinum ring features a square emerald-cut 25.02-carat centre stone – named ‘The Leonard Joel Diamond’ – flanked by 3.25 carats of smaller white diamonds.
It had been viewed in both Sydney and Melbourne before going under the hammer on Tuesday 20 April with a price guide of $900,000–$1.2 million.
An absentee bidder won the auction with a bid of $1.125 million, smashing the previous record of $575,000 paid for a 17.34-carat diamond ring in August 2020, also sold by Leonard Joel.
The Leonard Joel Diamond has VVS2 clarity and I colour, and was cut from a 47.96-carat rough, ethically mined in Canada’s Northwest Territories.
Hamish Sharma, head of Leonard Joel’s Important Jewels division, said, “If you’re judging it from a point of view of beauty, it’s unparalleled. If you’re looking for rarity it’s the only one of its kind in the world.”
The sale of the ring contributed to a record-breaking evening for Leonard Joel, with the auction becoming the highest-ever grossing jewellery auction in Australian history with a total of $4.275 million.
Leonard Joel was founded in 1919 and its jewellery division opened in 1981.
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