11.06.2023
The writing was already on the wall when the Estrela de Fura it means Star of Fura in Portuguese) went to auction on June 8 in New York, under the guidance of Sotheby's. It was billed as the largest gem-quality ruby to to ever appear at auction, weighing 55.22 carats after its cut (the rough stone weighed 101 carats). Sotheby’s states that this cut stone’s “rich saturation of colour, untouched by heat treatment, highly crystalline appearance and incomparable size” places it in rare company. And with that came the optimism that it would fetch an even higher price than the 25.29-carat Sunrise Ruby from Myanmar that delivered a US$30.3 million hammer price in 2015. And it did. Sotheby's started with a soft opening bid of US$21 million before Estrela de Fura landed a final price of US$34.8 million thanks to an anonymous buyer via a telephone bid.
