(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-04-11 14:35

HONG KONG  -- A rare 72.22-carat diamond fetched around 80 million Hong Kong dollars (10.26 million US dollars) without surprise on Thursday, making it one of the most expensive jewel items ever sold at auctions in Asia.

Buyers started bidding for the unmounted diamond at 60 million HK dollars and finally pushed the hammer price up to 73 million HK dollars (9.36 million US dollars), excluding several millions of HK dollars in buyer's premium.

A pear-shaped D-colour flawless 72.22 carat diamond is displayed during a Sotheby's Auction press preview in Hong Kong Monday, March 31, 2008. The diamond fetched around 80 million Hong Kong dollars (10.26 million US dollars) without surprise on Thursday April 10, making it one of the most expensive jewel items ever sold at auctions in Asia.  [Agencies]

The pear-shaped diamond was of D color, the clearest category, and boasts of "flawless clarity and excellent polish and symmetry", according to Sotheby's Hong Kong, which offered over 300 jewel and jadeite items worth some 400 million HK dollars (51.28 million US dollars) Thursday.

Sotheby's said the buyer would be given the right to name the diamond.

Other offers proved popular with buyers from Asia as well as other continents, too.

A diamond necklace consisting of 43 pear-shaped "internally flawless" diamonds totaling over 90 carat, went at the hammer price of 37.5 million HK dollars (4.81 million US dollars). The final price was 42.33 million HK dollars (5.43 million US dollars).

A pair of jadeite double-hoops and diamond pendent ear rings also caught eyes by going at a final price of 5.93 million HK dollars (760,000 US dollars).

Sotheby's also put some luxury watches on sale, with a rare Patek Philippe double-dialled wrist watch sold at 11.75 million HK dollars (1.51 million US dollars), setting the new world record for any modern wrist watch sold at auction.