14 igafencu.com
B
y all accounts, a truly special father-daughter bonding moment
took place at a recent Sotheby’s auction when, after a fierce
bidding war, a gargantuan 88.22-carat oval diamond was
sold to a Japanese collector for US$13.8 million. Immediately upon
completing the sale, the purchaser then renamed the precious stone
the Manami Star after his eldest daughter.
This poignant gesture only further added to the undoubted allure
of the gemstone, one of only three oval diamonds of 50 carats or more
to have been offered for auction in living memory. Officially deemed a
category D, Flawless, Type IIa, Brilliant diamond, it holds the particular
distinction of notching up a perfect score across all the 4 C’s that
count – cut, colour, clarity and carat weight.
The original rough diamond that morphed into the 88.22-carat
gem was mined in Botswana at a site co-owned by the De Beers
diamond merchants and the Botswanan government, a site that
was already renowned as a source of stones of the highest quality.
Weighing in at a staggering 242 carats, the original was then
painstakingly professionally polished and cut over several months,
before emerging in its ultimately symmetrical, iridescent form.Daughter Gets Diamond Name-checked
StAR
Child