This second to last Argyle Diamond tender was hosted Rio Tinto as giving the best opportunity to connoisseurs to hold the beauty of Fancy colour Diamonds!
The 2020 tender, which had to be conducted under COVID ‘conditions’, allowed participants to view the stones using live streaming and a virtual portal at locations in Antwerp, Singapore and Perth, Australia, due to travel restrictions. Technology that enabled exacting colour calibration and magnification of the diamonds was also used during the event.
Hong Kong-based Kunming Diamonds was the successful bidder for 35 lots, including the coveted Argyle Eternity. The 2.24-carat fancy-vivid-purplish-pink, which Rio Tinto representatives say, is “the most valuable diamond in the collection and the most valuable Fancy Vivid diamond in the Tender’s 37-year history.”
Leibish, the New York-based colored diamond specialist, upped its bids this year by 20% to secure 16 of the 62 gems offered by Rio Tinto including “The Argyle Sakura Diamond,” a 1.84-carat, pear-shaped fancy vivid purplish-pink stone.
Leibish is calling its 2020 tender cache the “Pink Sunset Collection” in homage to Argyle’s last days of mining and its historic finale. Leibish’s acquisition included 11 of the 21 stones that weighed in at greater than 1 carat. These represented the rarest and most valuable pink diamonds in the group.
Australian jeweler John Calleija secured the largest pink diamond in the Argyle Pink Diamonds Signature Tender – Lot 2, Ethereal and successfully bid on a number of those sets, which he was already exploring design possibilities with the new stones.
