Courtesy of de Grisogono
Last week, de Grisogono and Christie’s hosted a traveling exhibition and auction in Dubai titled “The Art of de Grisogono,” to showcase a selection of some of the world’s most impressive diamonds. Chief among them was the 4 de Fevereiro, the 27th largest diamond ever found. Discovered in Angola in February 2016 – hence the name, which translates to the fourth of February in Portuguese (the country’s Independence Day) – the jaw-dropping 163ct diamond was unveiled as a high jewelry necklace at the auction. “The entire process from the rough diamond to the unveiling of The Art of de Grisogono creation took less than 20 months,”Said Fawaz Gruosi, founder and creative director of de Grisogono, tells Vogue.me.
Courtesy of de Grisogono
It is the first time the Swiss jewelry house took part in creating a jewel of this stature, from start to finish. The mapping, cleaving, laser cutting, and polishing of the elegant 163.41ct emerald-cut stone was executed in New York and took 11 months to complete. It then traveled to the luxury jewelry brand’s headquarters in Geneva, where Fawaz Gruosi and a team of 14 craftsmen and women – including eight jewelers, five setters, and one engraver – dreamed up the emerald necklace setting for the diamond. “We spent 1 700 hours on the creation,” Fawaz Gruosi says.
Courtesy of de Grisogono
Now, for the 163ct question: what will someone pay for an extremely rare diamond of this caliber? “We expect the diamond necklace to sell for upwards of US $30 million,” says David Warren, senior international jewelry director and head of jewelry Middle East. To put it into perspective: the lavish piece of jewelry is nearly seven times more valuable than the 220ct diamond bib-style necklace that once belonged to Egyptian royal Queen Nazli, and was sold for US $4.3 million at a Sotheby’s NYC auction in 2015.
The 4 de Fevereiro is set to tour New York and Geneva next. It will be sold at the Art of de Grisogono auction on November 14 in Geneva.
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