Record prices

At the end of the 1980ies a gemtrader wrote in a jewellery magazine that he expected prices of coloured gems go sky high in the 21st century.

Back then we we shook our heads at this prognosis. Of course prices would rise, but "sky high" seemed somewhat exaggerated.

Well, in the meantime we are not so sure any more.

In February 2006 London jeweller Laurence Graff paid $ 425 000 p.ct. for an 8.62cts Burma ruby at Christies, shattering the old world record of $ 275 000 p.ct, which had been paid for another 8cts Burma ruby merely one year before.

Subsequently the stone was sold to Greek investor and collector Dimitri Mavromattis.

In November 2014 sixteen pieces of the Mavromattis collection were auctioned by Sotheby´s. The above mentioned Ruby, by now known as the Graff Ruby, was one of them and it achieved a whopping one million dollar per carat.
The buyer was, lo and behold, Laurence Graff.

Now, assuming that Graff will sell the stone at a profit, one can expect this new world record to be beaten in the foreseeable future.

It looks as if the colleague could be right after all.