Record Diamond Sale - $45.75 million

On Tuesday, a rare pink diamond fetched 45.44 million Swiss francs ($45.75 million | R323 million | £28.62 million). The rectangular pink diamond, which weighs 24.78 carats and is about the size of a pinball, was the star lot among 550 on the block at the semi-annual jewellery sale in Geneva. London jeweler Laurence Graff is the new owner of this fabulous stud and commented ""It is the most fabulous diamond I've seen in the history of my career and I'm delighted to have bought it." The sale price was almost double the $24.3 million achieved by the blue 35.56-carat Wittelsbach-Graff diamond in 2008. That was also bought by Graff.

                                                            The Blue 35.56-carat Wittelsbach also bought by Graff

"This is the highest price ever bid for a jewel at auction," said David Bennett, the head of Sotheby's jewelry division, as the auction room in Geneva's luxury Beau Rivage hotel erupted into applause. "Everybody was surprised it went that high," Mart van Drunen, a jeweler from Amsterdam, commented after the sale. "He clearly wants to have all the rarest diamonds in the world."

Sotheby's said it sold jewels worth $105.1 million Tuesday, also a world record for a single sale. The auction included items once belonging to Christina Onassis, the daughter of the Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, and Cristina Ford, the second wife of Henry Ford's grandson Henry Ford II

"I think this tells you a bit about the health of the market," Bennett told reporters after the sale.