An extremely rare 100-carat flawless diamond the size of a walnut fetched $22.1 million at Sotheby's Magnificent Jewels auction in New York City on Tuesday.
The classic emerald-cut colorless diamond, which was mined by De Beers in South Africa in 2013, was originally 200 carats in weight in its raw, unpolished form before the company spent more than an entire year polishing and shaping the gemstone to its current size.
Flawless diamonds, especially diamonds that are bigger than an entire knuckle, are very rare. They are classified as such because they are completely free from internal defects, even when subjected to intense magnification. To date, only six flawless diamonds weighing more than 100 carats have been sold in the last six years, including the latest one sold by Sotheby's and four others by the same auction house in Geneva and Hong Kong.
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