World's most expensive diamond

The only jewelry news that could steal the spotlight from Prince William giving Kate his mother's sapphire engagement ring is this little tidbit:

An extremely rare pink diamond just smashed the price record for most expensive diamond (and piece of jewelry) sold at auction - in the world!


Sotheby's placed early price estimates in the high $20 million range, but one megarich diamond collector paid nearly double that paltry sum - a whopping $46.16 million!

And that's not the half of it. This fellow, Laurence Graff, already owns the Wittelsbach-Graff diamond which used to hold the title of most expensive stone in the world at $24.3 million. That is until this flawless 24.78-carat piece of pink perfection went under the hammer.


Call me crazy, but how can the entire state of California be nearly bankrupt and this dude have enough in the coffers to buy flawless diamonds in his spare time?

That said, I find it interesting that Laurence Graff is a self-made gazillionaire - a 14-year-old dropout from the mean streets of London. So I suppose this Charles Dickens tale of rags to riches has the kind of happy ending any self-proclaimed jewelry hound would find hard to resist.