Michael Jordan's sneakers sell for $615,000, new record

Michael Jordan, Nike, Air Jordan 1, sneakers, auction, basketball, Christie's


A pair of Michael Jordan's game-worn sneakers sold for $615,000, Christie's auction house said Thursday, shattering a record set just months ago by the sale of another pair of the basketball legend's shoes.

The sneakers were a pair of Air Jordan 1 Highs that the NBA megastar wore during a 1985 exhibition match in Italy when he dunked the ball so hard it shattered the glass backboard.

"This is the original shoe with an actual piece of the backboard, a piece of glass, in the sole of the shoe," said Caitlin Donovan, head of handbag and sneaker sales at Christie's -- which organized the auction with Stadium Goods.

Jordan racked up 30 points while wearing the size 13.5 shoes, which are in the red and black colors of his Chicago Bulls team.

Though the sale broke the record set in May when a pair of Air Jordan 1's sold for $560,000, the new auction landed below the estimated range of $650,000 and $850,000.

The record setting sales highlight the soaring market value of objects identified with the retired basketball superstar since the release of "The Last Dance," an ESPN/Netflix documentary that chronicles the saga of Jordan and his Chicago Bulls.

It also confirms that the lowly sneaker now has a place of pride in the world of wealthy collectors alongside more traditional collectibles.

Agence France-Presse

At $50 million, pink 'Legacy' diamond shines brightest in Christie's sale

GENEVA - The 'Pink Legacy', a diamond weighing just under 19 carats, fetched a record 50.375 million Swiss francs ($50 million) as it outshone all other auction lots at Christie's in Geneva on Tuesday.

Graded "vivid", the highest rating for a pink diamond's color, the gem is internally pure with a rectangular cut, and mounted on a platinum ring.

Once owned by the Oppenheimer Family, who built De Beers into the world's biggest diamond trader, the diamond had a pre-sale estimate of $30 to $50 million. The identity of the seller was not disclosed.

Vivid colored diamonds are the most strongly saturated gems, displaying the optimum hue of the stone. Most pink diamonds of this color weigh less than 1 carat, the auction house - which was holding its semi-annual jewellery sale - said.

Christie's said the 'Pink Legacy' achieved a new per-carat record for a pink diamond, and was the second most expensive one ever sold at auction.

($1 = 1.0073 Swiss francs)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Rare pink diamond aims to make $50 million

GENEVA, Switzerland - The Pink Legacy, an exceptionally large pink diamond, is set to go under the hammer at Christie's in Geneva next week, when it is expected to bring in up to $50 million.

At nearly 19 carats, the vividly colored gem is extraordinary, Jean-Marc Lunel, an international jewellery specialist at Christie's, told AFP.

"If you consider that most pink diamonds weigh less than a carat, it is really something," he said.

The gem, which on Nov. 13 will be offered at auction for the first time, has been estimated at between $30 million and $50 million (26.5-44.1 million euros), and Lunel suggested it could hit the high end of that range.

"It is probably the most beautiful (specimen) ever presented at public auction," he said, insisting there was good reason to expect the rock to snatch an extraordinary price.

The rectangular-cut diamond has been graded "fancy vivid" -- the highest possible grade of color intensity.

Christie's pointed out that in the salesroom, fancy vivid pink diamonds over 10 carats are "virtually unheard of" and that only 4 vivid pink diamonds or over 10 carats have ever been offered for sale at auction.

One of them, the nearly 15-carat Pink Promise, was sold last November at a Christie's auction in Hong Kong for $32.5 million. That amounts to $2.176 million per carat, which remains the world auction record price per carat for any pink diamond.

And in 2013, a huge pink diamond weighing 59.60 carats meanwhile went under the hammer at Sotheby's for $83 million, or $1.39 million per carat.

The Pink Legacy, set to headline Christie's annual Magnificent Jewels auction on Tuesday, used to belong to the Oppenheimer family, which for decades ran the De Beers diamond mining company, but Christie's refused to say who the current owner was.

It was discovered in a South African mine around a century ago, Lunel said.

"It was probably cut in the 1920s," he said, adding that it had not been altered since.

The classic rectangular cut is traditionally used for white stones, but is rare for pink diamonds.

"Imagine a domino that you have cut the corners off of," Lunel said, pointing out that the cut is a "classical so-called emerald cut", which stands out from the typical, more rounded, multi-faceted cuts used today.

Rahul Kadakia, Christie's international head of jewellery, meanwhile said in a statement in September that he expected The Pink Legacy to "cause immense excitement with collectors and connoisseurs of diamonds around the world".

"Its exceptional provenance will no doubt propel it into a class of its own as one of the world's greatest diamonds."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

LOOK: Pink diamond may fetch up to $50M at auction

A Fancy Vivid Pink diamond is estimated to sell for almost $50 million dollars, auction house Christie's said.

The diamond, weighing 18.96 carats, is the largest of its kind to be sold in the company's history, International Jewellery Director David Warren told Reuters in London.

"In 40 years of working at Christie's I've never seen anything like this in my life. It was a huge surprise when there it was, we saw it and couldn't quite believe that such a stone existed. It has wonderful purity and incredible brightness. It is beautifully cut, but it is the size and the color that just take your breath away," Warren said.

"The estimate is $30-50 million dollars which is the highest estimate we have placed on any piece of jewellery at any time," he added.

The diamond is on display in London this week ahead of going on auction at the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues in Geneva, Switzerland on November 13.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Gov't OKs sale of multi-million Marcos jewelry collection

The privatization and management office has approved the sale of a controversial Marcos jewelry collection.

Finance Undersecretary Gil Beltran, chair of the Private Management Office said the sale of the so-called Hawaii collection will proceed as planned after the Marcos family voluntarily relinquished ownership of the jewelry set.

Beltran said proceeds from the sale will go to the Bureau of Treasury and Presidential Commission on Good Government.

The Hawaii collection includes a rare 25-carat barrel-shaped pink diamond, and was among those appraised by Christie's and rival Sotheby's in November last year.

It could be recalled that the pink diamond was initially valued at $5 million.

"Some of the pieces are so important, so magnificent. There's a very wide variety of pieces - antique to modern, which is again what you would see in a current day royal collection - things that fit every occasion. So if you put me in there to value the jewelry and I had no knowledge of where it came from, I would say this feels like a royal collection," David Warren, director of jewelry at London-based Christie's, had said in the November report.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com