A platinum ring featuring ‘The Leonard Joel Diamond’ – a 25.02-carat white stone, mined in Canada – has sold for a record-breaking $1.25 million. Australia’s ‘most expensive’ diamond ring breaks auction record Posted April 23, 2021 | By Arabella Roden • Editor Auction house Leonard Joel has sold what is believed to be the largest and most expensive diamond ring ever auctioned in Australia.
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.
"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"Hamish Sharma, Leonard Joel
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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The Leonard Joel Diamond ring
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