Mined by De Beers in South Africa in 1999, the rough stone took cutters more than two years to shape into a 59.6-carat oval — graded by the GIA as Fancy Vivid Pink and internally flawless, a combination that essentially never occurs at this size.
A previous buyer defaulted on a $63 million winning bid for the stone in 2013, forcing Sotheby's to buy it back with its own money rather than lose the sale entirely.
Sotheby's Hong Kong finally closed the sale in 2017 for $71.2 million, to Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group, which promptly renamed it the "CTF Pink Star."
The four-year gap between the failed bid and the final sale means this single rock survived one collapsed nine-figure deal before completing an even bigger one.
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