Christie’s Website Back Online, Announces Plans to Auction 10-Carat Pink Diamond
"New York—Christie’s will offer a 10-carat fancy intense pink diamond during Luxury Week next month, even as questions remain about the “technology security incident” that resulted in its website being offline for more than week.
ArtNews reported Monday that the Christie’s website and app were back up and running as of Sunday, ending an outage that began the evening of May 9.
Christie’s did not respond to questions about the cause of the incident—widely reported to be the result of a cyberattack—or what steps it is taking to guard against future incidences, and it has not said much publicly about what happened.
In a statement shared with National Jeweler Tuesday, the auction house said: “Our website and app are now back online, through the efforts of the team, with full functionality. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to our clients for their patience.
“We appreciate you may have questions regarding the nature of the incident, but our investigation into this incident is ongoing and therefore we are not able to share any further information on this for the moment.”
Despite its website being offline, Christie’s proceeded with a series of live art and jewelry auctions last week, including the charity “Only Watch” auction (total $31.3 million) and its “Magnificent Jewels” and “Rare Watches” sales in Geneva, which brought in a total of about $80 million combined.
On Tuesday, the auction house revealed the gemstone it believes will be the highlight of its New York “Magnificent Jewels” sale on June 11, a 10.20-carat internally flawless fancy intense pink diamond named “The Eden Rose.”
The stone—which is a round brilliant, an uncommon cut for natural colored diamonds—is expected to sell for $9 million to $12 million, or $882,353 to $1.2 million per carat.
Christie’s said it’s the most significant IF, round brilliant, fancy intense pink to come to auction in more than a decade. In 2012, a buyer paid $17.4 million, or $1.4 million per carat, for the 12.04-carat “The Martian Pink” diamond at a Christie’s jewelry auction in Hong Kong.
“The Eden Rose has never been offered at auction, and we are proud to be presenting a jewel of its unmatched caliber for the first time this June in New York,” Christie’s International Head of Jewelry Rahul Kadakia said.
The diamond will be exhibited at Christie’s Hong Kong from May 24 to 27.
After that, the auction house will bring “The ... "
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