The 55.22-carat Estrela de Fura ruby, the largest of “gem” quality ever to appear at auction, fetched Thursday evening at Sotheby’s in New York for the staggering $34.8 million. The Estrela thus surpassed the previous world record held by the Sunrise Ruby, a Burmese ruby of 25.59 carats also beaten by Sotheby’s in Geneva, in May 2015, for 30.3 million dollars. The Estrela de Fura, which means “star of Fura”, with reference to the Fura Gems company that had extracted it in the Montepuez field, in northern Mozambique, is a 55.22 carat cushion-cut ruby derived from the cut of the original, of 101 carats. Fura Gems will allocate 2% of the proceeds from the sale to support its Fura Training Academy project, in support of the community in which it operates in the African country. The buyer’s identity has not been disclosed.
