Two historic pieces of jewelry — a Romanov sapphire bracelet and a Bulgari pink diamond ring — have recently fetched millions of dollars at auction.
The ring featured a 24-carat fancy intense pink emerald-cut diamond that once belonged to a European noble family. Offered at auction for the first time after more than 70 years in private hands, it sold for $14 million at Christie’s Magnificent Jewels auction in Geneva.
The diamond had reportedly been acquired in India by the consignor’s great-grandparents in the 1950s before making its way from the subcontinent’s legendary diamond-producing regions to the ateliers of Bulgari in Rome.
READ: Google pays Spirit Airlines $10 million for internal data to power AI (August 18, 2026)
“What a tremendous year for Christie’s Jewels,” Max Fawcett, global head of jewelry at Christie’s, said. “With strong global demand tonight, The Bulgari Pink, the final lot of our Magnificent Jewels sale, ended our run of live auctions in Geneva this week on a high. We look forward to continuing the success in Shanghai, New York and beyond for our upcoming Luxury sales.”
The diamond is classified as Type IIa, a category that accounts for fewer than 2% of all gem-quality diamonds.
Meanwhile, a Romanov sapphire weighing nearly 198 carats, set in a diamond-covered bracelet, sold for more than 4.1 million Swiss francs ($4.9 million) at auction, significantly exceeding its estimated price range, Sotheby’s said.
The cushion-shaped sapphire, attributed to the Russian imperial family, was described as an exceptionally rare gemstone. It had been expected to fetch between 850,000 and 1.7 million Swiss francs ($1 million to $2 million) at the Geneva auction on Wednesday. The buyer, a private collector, was not identified.
READ: US tariffs threaten India’s diamond industry; RBI to strike back with new policies (August 26, 2025)
Like the Bulgari pink diamond, the sapphire is believed to have South Asian origins. The 197.80-carat Ceylon sapphire is thought to have originated in the Mughal Empire in South Asia before becoming part of Russia’s imperial jewels in the 19th century. It is regarded as one of the most important surviving gemstones associated with the Russian imperial court.
Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, mother of Czar Nicholas II, wore the sapphire at the Winter Palace Ball in 1903, an event Sotheby’s described as “widely regarded as the last great spectacle of Imperial Russia and immortalized in some of the most iconic images of the Romanov court.”
Sotheby’s said that following the Russian Revolution, the sapphire was recorded in an inventory before entering Soviet government sales of imperial treasures.