Diamond earrings fetch record $57.4 million at Swiss auction

GENEVA: Two spectacular diamonds mounted as earrings fetched a record $57.4 million (51.8 million euros) Tuesday at auction in Geneva, with an unnamed Asia-based buyer netting both, Sotheby's said.

The earrings were sold as separate lots. After protracted bidding, the flawless and vivid "The Apollo Blue" fetched $42.087 million and the equally intensely luminescent "The Artemis Pink" went for $15.33 million, buyers premium included.

The earrings, named after Greek gods, had respectively been valued at between $38 million and $50 million and $12.5 million and $18 million.

The 14.54 carat "Apollo Blue" is the largest gemstone in its category ever to be auctioned and has been cut and polished to a pear shape.

The 16-carat "Artemis Pink" is near identical in shape. It is also one of the world's most "chemically pure" diamonds, according to the Gemological Institute of America, which experts say gives the stone such a high degree of transparency.