The World’s most expensive Diamond Ring

Over the years, diamond rings of varying colours, shapes and sizes have made the headlines by selling at occasionally almost unbelievable prices. These include, among others, the:

• Moussaieff Red Diamond, a ring bearing a 5.11 carat red diamond with a triangular brilliant, or trilliant, cut; $7 million
• De Grisogono Green Diamond, set in white gold and bearing a cushion-cut, rare green diamond (25 carat) surrounded by black diamonds (totalling seven carats); $7.3 million
• Flawless Blue, a ring set with a 7.03 carat blue diamond; $9.69 million
• Vivid Blue, featuring a 6.01 blue diamond (cushion-shaped); $10 million

The Bulgari Two-Stone (with two large diamonds) and the Graff Pink, which features a 24.78 carat intense pink diamond (emerald-cut), were sold at $15.7 million and $46 million respectively.

The Piéce de Résistance

The most expensive diamond ring in the world, however, has got to be the Spirit of de Grisogono. This ring bears the world’s largest black cut diamond, weighing in at 312.24 carats. The black diamond used to create this rather massive gem was the world’s fifth largest diamond ever at an uncut weight of 587 carats. It is set within a white gold mounting encrusted with a total of 702 white diamonds amounting to 36.69 carats.

The Gem’s Journey

Mined in the western region of Central Africa, the stone was eventually brought to Switzerland. Here, it was cut by de Grisogono, a famous Swiss jeweller, using the historic Mogul cutting technique. Developed in India many centuries ago, this technique was used on historic diamonds, including the:

• Orlov Diamond, Russian Diamond Treasury, Moscow
• Taj-I-Mah Diamond and several other Irani Crown Jewel diamonds
• Great Mogul, a 279 carat stone the whereabouts of which are unknown

In total, it took de Grisogono a year to create the final cut of this rare diamond, said to be the largest ever natural black diamond tested by GGL (Gubelin Gem Lab). De Grisogono was, by the way, also responsible for the world’s largest black diamond cut in a heart-shape, the Gruosi Diamond weighing in at a staggering 312.24 carats.

Sold to anonymous Buyer

Apparently, the ring was eventually sold for an undisclosed amount to a private client by Fawaz Gruosi. Considering the size of this rare specimen of a diamond, combined with the weight of the white diamonds used to encrust the white gold setting, the mind boggles at how much this ring must be worth.