Lest we forget, Christie’s had a London and a New York sale of jewels last week and the numbers were impressive ($17.4m combined). The auction house emphasized the success of “period jewelry with provenance” in London but there was still plenty of interest in big stones:

• The London Sale was 84 percent sold by lot and garnered a total of $6.1 million (GBP 3.7 million).
  
• Christie’s New York Jewels auction, which was held on June 11, 2009, garnered  $11,367,875. The sale was 91 percent sold by lot and 86 percent sold by value. London: The top lot was a 44.14-carat circular-cut, fancy yellow, SI1 diamond set in an art deco mount, which fetched $865,324, or $19,600 per carat. A 10.09-carat, cushion-shaped, F, VS2 diamond sold to an Asian private for $414,064, and a 4.99-carat brilliant-cut, F,VS2 diamond sold to a member of the U.S. trade for $135,460.

New York: Christie’s New York Jewels auction, which was held on June 11, 2009, garnered  $11,367,875. The sale was 91 percent sold by lot and 86 percent sold by value. The top lot of the day, which sold to an anonymous bidder, was a 6.29-carat, pear-shaped, internally flawless, fancy intense blue diamond, which sold for $3,554,500, or $565,000 per carat — at the lower end of Christie’s presale estimate of between $3.3 million and $5.5 million.

Christie’s London Jewels Sale Tops $6M, 84% Sold by Lot (Diamonds.net)