Princie Diamond

The Gemological Institute of America characterizes the Princie Diamond as fancy intense pink, natural color, VS2 clarity, Type IIa. The Princie diamond is at this time the largest Golconda-type fancy intense pink diamond ever to be graded at the Gemological Institute of America. ==History==

The diamond was discovered about 300 years ago in the Golconda mines. Long before it was known as the "Princie" or by any other name, it belonged to the royal family (Nizams) of Hyderabad, its first known owners. The then Nizam of Hyderabad had it auctioned in 1960 at Sotheby's. It was bought by the London branch of the jewelers Van Cleef & Arpels for 46,000 British pounds. It was then sent to their Paris store where it was named "Princie" by Pierre Arpels in honor of the fourteen-year-old son of Sita Devi, the Maharanee of Baroda, Sayajirao Gaekwad (1945–1985). ==2013 auction==

It was auctioned by Christie's in New York on 16 April 2013 In the event it only fetched 39.3 million dollars which is still a record-breaking price. It set the records for being the most valuable Golconda mine diamond ever sold at auction and for the highest price for any jewel sold at Christie's, surpassing the previous house record of 24.4 million dollars, set in December 2008 with the sale of the Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond. It was purchased by an anonymous collector bidding by phone. ==See also==