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The Ponahalo diamonds, 102.11 and 70.87 carats, are headed to Dubai

Ponahalo diamonds find a home in Dubai

Extraordinary pair of supergems will not go separate ways

(Oct. 16, 2008) Like fraternal twins facing separation if they were adopted by different families, the giant Ponahalo diamonds could have wound up in two separate parts of the world.

But Amer Radwan of Dubai saved the diamonds from such a fate by buying them both at Christie's auction house in New York last night. Radwan paid $4,114,500 for the largest of the pair at 102.11 carats, and $2,154,500 for the smaller at 70.87 carats. All prices U.S.

The Ponahalo diamonds were cut from an extraordinary 316.15 carat rough discovered in 2005 at De Beers’ Venetia mine. It took Steinmetz Diamonds 18 months to shape the stones into rectangular-cut gems.

Even though their L colour is not the highest grade, the Ponahalos’ overwhelming weight and clarity (at VS2 and SI 1) easily put them in the top category of magnificent gems. The fact that there are two of them is even more remarkable.

"Like the Duchess of Windsor's canary pear-shaped diamonds, when you put the stones side by side, table to table, you can tell they were cut from the same diamond," noted international jewellery consultant Brett Sherlock, prior to the sale.

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the Ponahalo Diamonds will be donated to the Diamond Empowerment Fund, co-created by Russell Simmons. D.E.F. is a non-profit international organization that riases funds to promote education initiatives in African nations where diamonds are a natural resource.

“I am delighted to have acquired these beautiful gems and to have helped the donation to the Diamond Empowerment Fund,” Radwan commented by phone following the sale.

Other notable gems in the Christie's New York Jewels sale included a 7.02 carat blue diamond ring which sold for $3,610,500 to an anonymous bidder, and a 5.6 carat purplish-pink diamond ring which sold for $2,714,500 to Alisa Moussaieff.

“In a volatile market when the Dow lost 700 points in a day, nearly $30 million of jewelry and precious stones changed hands at Christie’s in less than five hours thus demonstrating the relative stability of the jewellery market and the long dependability of gems as a store of portable value,” remarked Rahul Kadakia, Christie’s head of jewellery.