Sotheby’s has a lot to crow about in the Jewelry department where big money is going into big diamonds and vintaged signed jewelry pieces from prestigious designers:

•  Sotheby’s Geneva set a new world auction record for any various-owner jewellery sale in May at $108.4 million. This result surpassed the then-record $105 million established by Sotheby’s Geneva in November 2010.
• Across its worldwide salesrooms, Sotheby’s jewellery auctions sold a very strong average of 84% by lot last year
• 72 lots sold for more than $1 million, with six of those lots selling above $5 million
• Sotheby’s saw its highest-ever total for a day of jewellery sales in the Americas, when its December auctions in New York reached $64.8 million
•  Sotheby’s annual total of $114.5 million in Hong Kong marked the company’s second-biggest year of jewellery and jadeite sales in Asia
• Sotheby’s held two rare ‘white glove’ auctions – 100% sold by lot – in 2012: Jewels from the Personal Collection of Suzanne Belperron in Geneva in May, and The Jewellery Collection of the Late Michael Wellby in London in December