The stone weighing almost 19 carats was once owned by the Oppenheimer family.

It took only five minutes of bidding at Christie’s for the hammer to fall on a $50 million bid by the American jewelry firm Harry Winston.

Christie’s head of jewelry Rahul Kadakia calls the stone the Leonardo da Vinci of the gem world.

It’s classified fancy vivid, which is the highest level of colour intensity.

In its 250 years of existence Christie’s has sold only four pink diamonds of more than four carats.

Only two percent of diamonds unearthed are of the pink variety that comes from a lack of nitrogen. 

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