A rare pear-shaped diamond that is expected to fetch up to $ 15 million will be able to be bought at auction next month using cryptocurrencies, Sotheby’s said on Monday.
Sotheby’s said it would be the first time that a diamond of this size has been offered for public purchase with cryptocurrency. No other physical item of such high value was previously available for sale with cryptocurrency, the auction house added.
The 101.38-carat pear-shaped flawless diamond, dubbed The Key 10138, is one of ten diamonds over 100 carats ever auctioned, only two of which were pear-shaped.
It carries a presale estimate of $ 10 million to $ 15 million and will be sold on July 9 in Hong Kong. Bitcoin or ether, as well as traditional money, will be accepted as a means of payment.
“This is a truly symbolic moment. The oldest and most iconic denominator of value can now, for the first time, be purchased using humanity’s last universal currency,” said Patti Wong, President of Sotheby’s Asia, in a statement.
Cryptocurrencies have had a volatile year, with explosive growth and significant drops. In the United States, the National Republican Congressional Committee said last week that it would accept donations in cryptocurrency; El Salvador this month became the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender.
Sotheby’s in May sold a Banksy for $ 12.9 million in the first instance of a physical work of art sold by a major auction house that was bought with cryptocurrency.
Sotheby’s said the past year saw strong demand for white diamonds, jewelry and other luxury items, especially from young people, including those in Asia.
The name of the colorless diamond – Key 10138 – is intended to reflect the integral role that keys occupy in the cryptocurrency world.
Pear-shaped diamonds are among the most sought after. The most famous example is the 530-carat Cullinan 1 diamond, one of the British crown jewels.
The highest price paid for a colorless diamond at auction was a 118.28-carat oval that cost $ 30.8 million at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong in 2013, with a record price per carat of $ 260,252.
From “pink†diamonds to the world’s first microchip: items that didn’t sell at auction
A Beethoven manuscript
In 2016, Sotheby’s auctioned off a manuscript of Ludwig van Beethoven. The one-page manuscript has been described as the “Autograph manuscript of the Allegretto in B minor for string quartet (WoO 210), composed for an English visitor to Vienna in 1817”. It bears the words “composed and written by Beethoven himself on November 29, 1817 in Vienna”. The manuscript was to yield around 200,000 books. The auction house said there were no takers due to a claim by a Beethoven scholar that the manuscript was not authentic.
Image: Sotheby’s
Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity Document
In 1996, Albert Einstein’s first available manuscript in which he elaborated his theory of relativity was auctioned off by Sotheby’s in Manhattan. The item, which was expected to sell for between $ 4 million and $ 6 million, did not hit the minimum bid. The untitled 72-page manuscript was written in 1912, seven years after the first publication of Einstein’s Special Theory.
The world’s first electronic chip
In 1958, Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments handcrafted the world’s first microchip. The second prototype of this historic chip went under the hammer in 2014, but failed to reach the reserve price. Kilby won the Nobel Prize for the creation of the chip and his other contributions to the computer age. Christie’s had estimated that the chip would bring in between $ 2 million and $ 2 million.
Image: Christie’s
James Cook Vest
Cook was a famous explorer and the man who claimed Australia for Great Britain in 1770, naming eastern Australia “New South Wales”. One of Cook’s waistcoats has passed through several hands, including Australian pianist Ruby Rich who modified it to fit a woman’s body. It landed in an auction in 2017. The 250-year-old vest was valued at nearly $ 1.1 million by Aalders Auctions.
Photo: Aalders Auctions
A real painting by Van Dyck
Father Jamie McLeod had bought a work of art from a small antique shop in Cheshire for £ 400. It later appeared that the artwork was an original painting by Van Dyck. It was discovered after a TV show rated the painting. In 2014, Christie’s established an estimate of 400,000 to 500,000 pounds for the painting titled “Study of the Head of a Strawberry Man”, which failed to sell.
Image: Christie’s
