400-Year-Old Diamond, The ‘Beau Sancy,’ Could Fetch $4 Million At Auction


A 400-year-0ld diamond, known as the Beau Sancy,” will be going up for sale next month at Sotheby’s auction house. The diamond, which is currently in private hands, is expected to bring in $4 million.

The Associated Press reports that the 34.98 carat diamond is currently on display in Paris. It will then move to London and Zurich before it lands in Geneva where it will be auctioned off on May 14th.

The Beau Sancy diamond got its name from Nicholas Harlay de Sancy, A French financier and diplomat who was collector and dealer of diamonds. Overabillionlcom writes:

“The “Beau Sancy” diamond is a perfect, colorless, rounded pear-shaped diamond of 34 carats…. Considering the stage in which the diamond first showed, the late 16th century, it must have created in the diamond mines of Southern India, well-known for manufacturing colorless diamonds of excellent clarity.”

The 400-year-old diamond has traded many hands throughout its history. The Beau Sancy is believed to have once belonged to The Lord Sancy, Charles the Bold, King Henry IV of France, Marie de Medicis, and Prince Frederick Henry (the Prince of Orange). The Beau Sancy eventually became the centerpiece in the royal crown in Prussia.

The jewel is currently owned by the descendants of the last emperor of Germany.

David Bennett, Sotheby’s jewelry chairman, said:

“It has a fascinating history, and really is a once-in-a-lifetime sale. When it was made in the 16th century, the pear cut was new, bold, and so it became the most sought-after jewel of its era. Before the ‘Beau Sancy’ all diamonds were rudimentary.”

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