Orange Diamond Sells At Christie’s For A World Record $35.5 Million; Why Are Colored Diamonds More Expensive Than White Ones?

The world's largest rare orange diamond sold at Christie's in Geneva for a world record $35.54 million on Tuesday. Why is the orange diamond, and other colored diamonds, more expensive than white or translucent diamonds?

"It's a world record price for an orange diamond, it's a world record price per carat for any colored diamond," the Christie's auction house said of the sale, on Tuesday.

"It's a tremendous price, a magnificent price," it added, Yahoo! News reports via AFP.

This means the orange diamond sold for $2.4 million per carat, beating the previous record held by the Vivid Pink Diamond sold in Hong Kong in 2009 for $2.15 million per carat.

So why are colored diamonds more expensive than white diamonds? According to AFP, they are rarer than white diamonds and because of this attract higher prices per carat.

According to Christie's international jewelry director David Warren, this is because, "colored diamonds are real freaks of nature. They begin as white diamonds, and it's some accidental coloring agent in the ground that will turn it a particular color".

For example, green diamonds are colored by radioactivity in the ground, blue diamonds get their color from boron, and yellow diamonds, which in rare cases turn orange, are colored by nitrogen.

Pink diamonds are formed from a distortion in the crystal lattice as the stone is taking shape, Yahoo! News reports.

Colored diamonds "are extraordinarily rare stones," said David Bennett, who heads the European jewelry division at Sotheby's.

"Time and again, a stone will appear on the market that is truly a miracle of nature," said François Curiel, International head of Christie's Jewellery Department, Forbes reports.

"The 14.82-carat orange diamond is one such a stone, a rare gem, which will perhaps only be seen once in a lifetime. In the sale on Tuesday, it soared far above all previous records for any orange diamond ever sold at auction, placing 'The Orange' among the greatest pinks and blues, which are traditionally the most appreciated colored diamonds," Curiel added.