(IDEX Online) - The US yesterday (Tuesday 27 June) announced new sanctions on gold and diamond companies which, it says, fund Russia's Wagner Group of mercenaries.The Wagner Group, which has been fighting alongside Russian troops in Ukraine, was behind the failed mutiny against President Vladimir Putin over the weekend.The Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OF...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Is it OK to sell your diamond engagement ring to pay off mounting debts?A US couple shared their dilemma with The Moneyist, the personal finance section of the MarketWatch website.The (unnamed) wife wanted to know if her husband of six years was asking too much when he suggested selling off her $14,000 ring.He was laid off from his high-paying job with a software company several mo...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A watch enthusiast is taking legal action against high-end jeweler Shreve and Co, alleging the company forced him to build him up a $220,000 "purchase history" to buy the Patek Philippe he actually wanted.In court documents seen by SiliconValley.com Ali Rezaei claims Shreve, in San Francisco, USA, strung him along, knowing that it would, in fact, never be able to supply the w...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A rare diamond, ruby and emerald medallion, dating back to 1789, is to be auctioned by Christie's London.It's one of several that were commissioned by Britain's Queen Charlotte as a gift to close friends, to mark the recovery of her husband King George III from what was subsequently diagnosed as life-threatening porphyria.The medallion being sold was later converted...Read More
(IDEX Online) - CIBJO (the World Jewellery Confederation) is to work together with the International Grown Diamond Association (IGDA) to help consumers make informed choices.They will jointly address friction between the lab grown and natural diamond sectors."We all agree that a strategy of deriding natural diamonds or laboratory-grown diamond products is not conducive to consumers' understan...Read More
(IDEX Online) - An antique 7.58-carat sapphire, described as the property of a royal family, sold for more than three times its low estimate at Christie's Paris.The royal blue cushion, brilliant/step cut Kashmir gem realized $1.03m (EUR 945,000). The estimate was $327,00 to $436,000 (EUR 300,000 to EUR 400,00).It was the lead item in the online Joaillerie Paris auction, which raised a total o...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Hundreds of diamond workers from a manufacturing unit in Surat, India, have again protested over their demands for a pay increase and improved working conditions.Between 300 and 500 of the factory's 2,000 workers, supported by the Diamond Workers Union Gujarat (DWUG), protested in a dharana - sit-in - outside the Surat district collector's office yesterday.They claim Laxm...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A "genius" Great Dane reunited its owner with the diamond that had fallen from her wedding ring months earlier.Katrina Lemmon, from Idaho, USA, had given up hope of ever finding the gem husband Erick Baker gave her 20 years ago."It was there one day, and I was getting ready to go to work, and it wasn't on my finger," she told local news website BoiseDev.She searched the house...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Gemfields yesterday reported a 17 per cent increase in revenue at its latest auction of rubies, amid what it described as a "significant rebound in market prices".The UK-based colored gems miner sold $80.4m of mixed-quality rough at a series of online and physical auctions in Bangkok earlier this month, up from $66.8m last December."The ruby market is clearly firing on all 12 cylin...Read More
(IDEX Online) - US rapper Pharrell Williams has been showing off his SECOND pair of Tiffany & Co diamond-encrusted sunglasses.The 50-year-old multiple Grammy Award wore his first custom made pair - an almond-shaped frame with two emeralds and 61 round diamonds, weighing more than 25 carats - at Paris Fashion Week last January.At the time he joked: "Tiffany and I are engaged," and said the sung...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A "once in a lifetime" collection of Harry Winston jewelry, with over 255 carats of diamonds and a $12m valuation, is being sold at auction. The Diamond Wreath Suite includes a custom-designed necklace, earrings, bracelet, and watch, all handmade in .950 platinum and bearing the HW and Harry Winston hallmarks.The pieces are being auctioned as a single lot by Kruse GWS Auctions...Read More
(IDEX Online) - India's prime minister Narendra Modi presented US First Lady Jill Biden with a 7.5-carat lab grown diamond on a visit to the White House.The gem is "a beacon of responsible luxury that symbolises India's 75 years of freedom and sustainable international relations," said the Prime Minister's Office.It expanded on the diamond's eco-friendly credentials, saying it...Read More
(IDEX Online) - De Beers today reported a 31.5 per cent year-on-year drop in rough sales during June (cycle 5), amid increasing sightholder caution. Provisional sales were $450m, down only a little on $479m the previous month.But on a year-on-year basis, they suggest a marked slowdown. Sales were 4.5 per cent lower than 2022 at cycle 3 and 20 per cent lower at cycle 4. Today's cycle 5 fi...Read More
(IDEX Online) - India has simplified the paperwork required for e-commerce jewelry exports after a slump in foreign sales.The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) responded to repeated pleas by the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC).India suffered a 36 per cent drop in jewelry exports during April (in US dollars) and a 16 per cent fall in May.New guidelines issued b...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Swiss watch exports surged during May, up 14.4 per cent year-on-year to $2.56bn, driven in part by a huge increase in Chinese sales.That follows a more modest increase in April of 6.8 per cent, according to figures published today by the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry.China, the second biggest market for Swiss watches, saw sales up by over 158 per cent (an increase of over...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Alrosa says it expects to pay shareholders a dividend for the first half of 2023, as long as the diamond market remains stable.It marks a change in fortunes for the Russian state-controlled miner, which last paid a dividend at the end of 2021.Aisen Nikolaev, head of Yakutia, the republic where Alrosa is based, told the Interfax news agency: "We agreed with the country's govern...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Five men have been arrested in New York after an armed gang posing as construction workers stole an estimated $2m of diamonds in two heists.The suspects, most aged in their 60s, are reported to have links with the Lucchese and Gambino families that dominate organized crime in the city.Among the items stolen was a 73-carat necklace, a six-carat ring, and a 17-carat pair of earrings....Read More
(IDEX Online) - An Indian national was arrested after a flight to Indonesia after he was found with diamonds worth $100,000 sewn into his underpants.Customs officers at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, in Jakarta, arrested the 25-year-old man (on 14 June) after spotting "a notable nudge in the bottom half of his wardrobe".They found that pouches stitched into his underpants contained plastic...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Alrosa says it may diversify into mineral resources beyond diamonds in response to "the new geopolitical environment". Pavel Marinychev, new CEO of Russia's state-controlled miner told the Interfax news agency that rough diamond sales were under pressure.So while the company was working to preserve current channels, it was also seeking to establish new ones to secure its...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Diamond dealers from Surat are routinely flying to Sierra Leone, buying uncertified rough diamonds from artisanal mines and smuggling them home, according to an investigation by The Blunt Times.Many of the stones are reportedly stolen by workers and sold for dollars at "throwaway" prices.One diamond dealer, who said he was a frequent visitor, told the Surat-based news website: "We...Read More