"PRINCIE" PINK DIAMOND SELLS FOR U.S. RECORD $40 MILLION AT AUCTION

The 34.65-carat “Princie” fetched a US record at auction.

The prince of diamonds sold for nearly $40 million — a US record — in Manhattan yesterday.


The famed pink cushion-cut “Princie’’ gem — a 34.65-carat stunner named for a teenage prince of India and plucked from that country’s historic Golconda mines 300 years ago — was bought via a phone call during a bidding session at Christie’s, the auction house said.

The $39,323,750 sale price amounted to $1.1 million per carat.

The buyer was an anonymous collector, Christie’s said.

Princie’ was originally owned by one of India’s richest royal families, the Hyderabad.
In 1960, a descendant auctioned off the antique-cut gem to jeweler Van Cleef Arpels, which bought it for 46,000 British pounds, the equivalent of $1.3 million today, Christie’s said.

Pierre Arpels then affectionately named the stone after the 14-year-old Prince of Baroda, who was known as Princie.
Over the years, the stone passed into private hands.