May 2022
The Rock — The Largest White Diamond Ever Auctioned — Sells for $21.7 Million
The Rock, a 228.31-carat G-color white diamond, sold at Christie's Geneva in May 2022 for US$21.9 million, making it the largest white diamond ever offered at auction. The pear-shaped stone was mined and polished in South Africa around 2000, and represented a remarkable feat of both mining and cutting.
To call a 228-carat diamond 'The Rock' feels almost too on the nose, but the name stuck, and it is difficult to argue with. The stone was mined and polished in South Africa around 2000. While colored diamonds dominate the headline record prices, exceptional white diamonds of this size are their own category of rarity: a 228-carat stone of sufficient clarity and color to be cut into a single polished gem, rather than being broken into smaller stones, is a geological event. The Rock's US$21.9 million price tag works out to roughly US$96,000 per carat — a fraction of what a vivid pink or blue would command, but then again, you could fit most vivid pinks inside The Rock's setting.