Alrosa PJSC, Russia’s leading diamond producer, held its first auction for the exclusive Dynasty collection. This collection features five diamonds of various sizes, with the largest weighing 51.38 carats. The company offered the collection for sale at a closed auction in Moscow, setting the price at $10 million.
During the auction, four out of the five diamonds were sold. However, the largest diamond remains unsold. Auctioneers noted that the sums earned from the sold diamonds exceeded the initial estimates by 30 to 52 percent. Despite this success, the largest stone was withdrawn from sale.
In a statement following the auction, Alrosa explained: “The market was not prepared for the significant increase in the average price per carat for the largest diamond. Given its weight of 51.38 carats, and our strategy to obtain the highest possible price for large stones, we decided to withdraw the biggest diamond from the Dynasty collection.”
The Dynasty collection was created from a single 179-carat stone, mined in the eastern Russian republic of Yakutia. The original stone was named Romanov, after the imperial dynasty that ruled Russia until 1917, including the famous Emperor Peter I.
Alrosa chose the name “Dynasty” to revive the traditions of early 18th-century diamond polishers who worked during Emperor Peter I’s reign. The other diamonds in the collection are also named after prominent Russian families significant to the country’s history: Sheremetyev (16.67 carats), Orlov (5.05 carats), Vorontsov (1.73 carats), and Usupov (1.39 carats).
