As the holiday lights illuminate city streets from London to New York, it is worth noting that the sparkliest rainbow in the world is currently on view in Old Bond Street, home to the highest density of gem palaces. Leviev, Chatila, Chopard and David Morris blaze with a fireworks display of coloured diamonds, while Graff, which holds more than 60 per cent of the world's yellow diamond stock, appears to have displayed the entire reserve in one window alone.
"The concentration of the world's largest, finest coloured diamonds is in London now," says Dorrit Moussaieff, owner of the eponymous shop and a legendary dealer of diamonds. "If you go to the Place Vend?me or Fifth Avenue you will see nothing like it."
Indeed, says Melvyn Kirtley, vice-president of Tiffany, "the sheer weight and number of coloured diamonds on this street does not take away from their rarity."
"When talking about large, fancy stones, rarity cannot be underestimated," agrees Daniel White, UK business director of the Diamond Trade Centre. "Only one in 50 of all the stones polished is more than 0.2 carats, and just one in 10,000 of all the stones found are fancy coloureds. Thus, if you are looking at a fancy blue stone of more than 5 carats, one in a million is an understatement."
Of those one in 10,000 gem-quality stones, the four "Cs" (clarity, colour, cut and carat-weight) are assessed by the Gemological Institute of America to refine the market value of the diamond. The GIA estimates that only 4,000 carats of fancy diamonds are on the world market at any one time and a mere 50-60 carats of pink diamonds are mined in a year. As an indication of the rocketing prices for pinks, Moussaieff's daughter Tamara recalls, "In 1982 I remember offering $1,000 per carat for a very nice pink diamond. That same diamond today would be worth at least $200,000 per carat."
It is ironic that the nitrogen and boron atoms that create yellow and blue diamonds respectively were once considered impurities. Now - in order of rarity - red, orange, green, blue, pink and yellow diamonds lead the collectors' market. They are considered "the world's most concentrated form of wealth" and 24 of 25 of the highest prices paid at jewel auctions in the last decade were for coloured diamonds.
As Caroline Gruosi-Scheufele, co-president of Chopard, says: "There are only so many van Goghs in the world. The market now understands that you can probably not push more capital in a square centimetre and carry it around than you can in a coloured diamond."
In 2006, Gruosi-Scheufele bought and sold a pear-cut, 6.20-carat, natural orange-coloured diamond that was larger than Harry Winston's Pumpkin Diamond, which had previously toured the globe in The Splendor of Diamonds exhibition of the world's rarest stones. Alongside the great private collections and museums, the houses of Bond Street possess an astonishing percentage of these most magical of diamonds - and they are for sale.
Though Gruosi-Scheufele expresses regret that "a big connoisseur and friend of mine bought the orange right off my finger", she has grown equally attached to a 9.33-carat fancy deep blue VVS1 oval-cut blue diamond with a retail value of $700,000-per-carat, which she has set in 1.95 carats of pink diamonds.
Moussaieff's Bond Street boutique contains jewels that are beyond the dreams of the most avaricious Saudi princess, despite the fact that her most important coloured diamonds - including what is arguably the rarest coloured diamond in the world, remain in her bank vault.
The Moussaieff Red, shown at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC, in 2003 and London's Natural History Museum in 2005, is a 5.11-carat fancy red triangular-shaped diamond. As an indication of its rarity, the GIA has graded only five red diamonds and the Moussaieff Red is the largest. Holding and polishing the Moussaieff Red is rather akin to stroking the Mona Lisa's cheek. Mined in the 1990s, the red has certainly had fewer owners than Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece. As an indication of its value, the Hancock Red was sold at auction in 1987 for $880,000 and that stone was a mere 0.95 carats. Today the Moussaieff Red could command more than $20m.
As the holiday lights illuminate city streets from London to New York, it is worth noting that the sparkliest rainbow in the world is currently on view in Old Bond Street, home to the highest density of gem palaces. Leviev, Chatila, Chopard and David Morris blaze with a fireworks display of coloured diamonds, while Graff, which holds more than 60 per cent of the world's yellow diamond stock, appears to have displayed the entire reserve in one window alone.
"The concentration of the world's largest, finest coloured diamonds is in London now," says Dorrit Moussaieff, owner of the eponymous shop and a legendary dealer of diamonds. "If you go to the Place Vend?me or Fifth Avenue you will see nothing like it."
Indeed, says Melvyn Kirtley, vice-president of Tiffany, "the sheer weight and number of coloured diamonds on this street does not take away from their rarity."
"When talking about large, fancy stones, rarity cannot be underestimated," agrees Daniel White, UK business director of the Diamond Trade Centre. "Only one in 50 of all the stones polished is more than 0.2 carats, and just one in 10,000 of all the stones found are fancy coloureds. Thus, if you are looking at a fancy blue stone of more than 5 carats, one in a million is an understatement."
Of those one in 10,000 gem-quality stones, the four "Cs" (clarity, colour, cut and carat-weight) are assessed by the Gemological Institute of America to refine the market value of the diamond. The GIA estimates that only 4,000 carats of fancy diamonds are on the world market at any one time and a mere 50-60 carats of pink diamonds are mined in a year. As an indication of the rocketing prices for pinks, Moussaieff's daughter Tamara recalls, "In 1982 I remember offering $1,000 per carat for a very nice pink diamond. That same diamond today would be worth at least $200,000 per carat."
It is ironic that the nitrogen and boron atoms that create yellow and blue diamonds respectively were once considered impurities. Now - in order of rarity - red, orange, green, blue, pink and yellow diamonds lead the collectors' market. They are considered "the world's most concentrated form of wealth" and 24 of 25 of the highest prices paid at jewel auctions in the last decade were for coloured diamonds.
As Caroline Gruosi-Scheufele, co-president of Chopard, says: "There are only so many van Goghs in the world. The market now understands that you can probably not push more capital in a square centimetre and carry it around than you can in a coloured diamond."
In 2006, Gruosi-Scheufele bought and sold a pear-cut, 6.20-carat, natural orange-coloured diamond that was larger than Harry Winston's Pumpkin Diamond, which had previously toured the globe in The Splendor of Diamonds exhibition of the world's rarest stones. Alongside the great private collections and museums, the houses of Bond Street possess an astonishing percentage of these most magical of diamonds - and they are for sale.
Though Gruosi-Scheufele expresses regret that "a big connoisseur and friend of mine bought the orange right off my finger", she has grown equally attached to a 9.33-carat fancy deep blue VVS1 oval-cut blue diamond with a retail value of $700,000-per-carat, which she has set in 1.95 carats of pink diamonds.
Moussaieff's Bond Street boutique contains jewels that are beyond the dreams of the most avaricious Saudi princess, despite the fact that her most important coloured diamonds - including what is arguably the rarest coloured diamond in the world, remain in her bank vault.
A very important necklace has just been completed by the house of Graff, for example, that is an intricate filigree of the finest coloured diamonds - pinks, blues, cognacs and yellows of the subtlest hues. This waterfall of colour will sell for little short of $40m - and that's before Graff adds a 70-carat baby pink pear-shaped diamond that abseils from the collar into the lady's cleavage. Connoisseurs will recognise not only the million years it has taken to form the diamonds but the many years it has taken Graff to acquire a suite of stones of the precise colour and clarity required to create this necklace.
These connoisseurs will also be acquainted with the relatively new kid on the block, Leviev - a legend in the trade for its mining, cutting, polishing and selling of magnificent diamonds. Of the Leviev gems, only 2-3 per cent are used in the retail collection, such as the aforementioned fancy intense blue, one of a royal flush of diamonds held in Leviev's London vaults. Then there's the 50-carat fancy intense yellow diamond mounted as a ring and flanked by two D-flawless whites (£1.3m), and the 2-carat fancy dark green princess- cut diamond, one of 10 in the Leviev collection (£2.05m).
A curiosity in Leviev's London collection is two chameleon diamonds. For collectors these mysterious entities are both oddities and essentials. They are yellow diamonds that turn an intense green once exposed to light and the smallest of them retails for £249,000. (Moussaieff holds a high-carat chameleon with her bankers.)
Though the market for truly exceptional coloured diamonds is traditionally the preserve of Saudi princes, Russian oligarchs and modern maharajahs, Moussaieff notes: "The market is not exclusively for six-figure clients. A half-carat pink is accessible even though they don't exist in large quantities."
每当节日的灯火点亮从伦敦到纽约的城市街道，世界上最绚丽的"彩虹"就会闪耀现身老庞德街（Old Bond Street）――那里是聚集着无数宝石宫殿的圣地。利维斯伟（Leviev）、查提拉（Chatila）、萧邦（Chopard） 以及大卫·莫里斯（David Morris）等珠宝店在钻石光芒的辉映下耀眼夺目；而拥有全世界60%以上黄色钻石的格拉夫珠宝行（Graff），看起来仿佛把他们的全部珍藏都展示到一个橱窗里了。
伦敦--彩钻汇集地
"现在世界上最大、最精美的彩色钻石的聚集地是在伦敦。"享有盛名的珠宝经销商穆萨耶夫（Moussaieff）的店主多莉特·穆萨耶夫（Dorrit Moussaieff）说，"不管是在巴黎的旺多姆广场（Vend?me），还是纽约市的第五街（Fifth Avenue），你都无法找到可以与之媲美的珠宝圣地。"
的确如此，蒂梵尼珠宝店（Tiffany）的副总裁梅尔文·柯特利（Melvyn Kirtley）说："这条街上的彩钻举世罕见，不论数量和重量的大小，其珍稀性都不受影响。""大颗而且奇特的宝石，是非常稀有的。"
英国钻石贸易中心（Diamond Trade Centre）的业务主任丹尼尔·怀特（Daniel White）也赞成这一点，"在雕琢过的宝石中，通常50颗里才能发现1颗超过0.2克拉，而奇特的宝石更是万里挑一。因此，如果你看到一块奇特的、超过5克拉的蓝宝石，保守地说，这已经是百万里挑一了。"
因稀缺而珍贵
那些万里挑一的宝石要经过美国宝石学会（Gemological Institute of America，简称GIA）的"4C"评估――即净度(clarity)、 颜色(colour)、切工(cut)以及克拉重（carat-weight），以此来界定钻石的市场价值。据GIA估计，全世界的钻石市场上同时出现的奇特钻石加起来也只有4,000克拉，而且每年开采出的粉色钻石只有50至60克拉。粉色钻石的价格急剧上升，穆萨耶夫的女儿塔玛拉（Tamara）可以证明这一点。据她回忆："在1982年的时候，一颗非常精美的粉色钻石标价也就1,000美元，而在今天，同等品质的钻石最少价值20万美元。"
具有讽刺意味的是，分别由氮和硼元素形成的黄色和蓝色钻石曾被人认为品质不纯。然而如今，钻石却在按照其稀缺程度――红、橙、绿、蓝、粉、黄――引领着收藏市场。这些彩钻被认为是"世界上最为浓缩的财富"，在过去10年的珠宝拍卖会上，最高的25个拍卖价中有24个被彩色钻石包揽。
如萧邦珠宝店的联席总裁薛佛乐（Caroline Gruosi-Scheufele）所说："世界上就只有那么多凡高（van Goghs）作品。现在市场很明白，没有什么可以像彩钻一样，你可以将大量的资本投入到它那一平方厘米中，而且可以随身携带。"
2006年，薛佛乐购入并转手卖掉了一颗梨形、6.20克拉的天然橙色钻石，比海瑞·温斯顿（Harry Winston）的南瓜钻（Pumpkin Diamond）还要大。这颗南瓜钻曾在展示世界上最稀有宝石的"璀璨钻石展"（Splendor of Diamonds）上在全球巡回亮相。与规模宏大的私人收藏馆及博物馆相邻，老庞德街上的珠宝店拥有的迷人钻石所占的份额相当惊人，而且它们是供出售的。
尽管薛佛乐很遗憾地表示"一个非常内行的朋友从我这里淘走了那颗橙色钻石"，但她转而开始倾情于一颗9.33克拉、深蓝色VVS1钻石。这颗钻石成卵形，售价每克拉70万美元――这是她为1.95克拉的粉色钻石设定的价格。
彩钻的昂贵身价
穆萨耶夫在老庞德街上的这家专卖店拥有无数令人垂涎的珠宝，即便是最贪婪的沙特阿拉伯公主也难抵其诱惑――尽管她在银行保险柜里已经有了她最为垂青的彩钻，包括据称是世界上最稀有的彩钻。穆萨耶夫红钻（Moussaieff Red）是一颗5.11克拉、精美的三角形红色钻石，曾于2003年在华盛顿的史密森学会（Smithsonian）以及2005年在伦敦自然历史博物馆（Natural History Museum）分别展出。GIA只对5颗红色钻石进行过分级评估，而穆萨耶夫红钻是其中最大的，这足以显示其稀有和珍贵。拿在手里打磨它，犹如抚摸蒙娜丽莎的脸颊，圆润细腻。于20世纪90年代才开采出来的红色钻石，自然不会像利奥纳多·达芬奇（Leonardo da Vinci）的传世之作那样拥有那么多的收藏者。不过，重量仅有0.95克拉的汉考克红钻（Hancock Red）在1987年的拍卖会上卖出了88万美元的高价，这充分彰显了红色钻石的价值。现在，穆萨耶夫红钻的要价可以超过2,000万美元。
"这几年来，我们一直在进行公司历史上最大规模的彩钻收集。"蒂梵尼珠宝店的副总裁柯特利说，"但有一点很重要，我们收集这些钻石并不是要把它放到博物馆去。我们希望喜欢这些钻石的人们能佩戴它们并能在日常生活中享受其带来的乐趣。"这些珠宝包括一颗2.58克拉重的薄荷绿翡翠状彩钻，内部没有任何瑕疵：柯特利形容它为"绝无仅有的稀世珍品"。
高价出售前的装扮
同时，劳伦斯·格拉夫（Laurence Graff）在两年前曾买入并转手卖出几颗华贵的黄色钻石，如金星（Golden Star ，101.28 克拉）、沙皇皇后（Tsarina，90.14克拉）、金玛阿哈加（Golden Maharaja，65.57克拉）和107.46克拉的黄色罗耶特曼钻石（Rojtman Diamond）。随着油价的上涨，钟爱珠宝的中东和东南亚市场对具有如此品质的宝石如饥似渴――正如这些珠宝商们将会证实的，真正让这些钻石得以高价卖出的，是他们装扮钻石的方法。
一条颇有分量的项链刚刚在格拉夫珠宝行问世，这条项链镶嵌着一颗做工复杂而精致奇特的最好的彩钻――混有最稀薄微妙的粉色、蓝色、白兰地及黄色色调。这颗色彩似瀑布般荡漾的彩钻将以近4,000万美元的价格出售――那是在格拉夫外加一颗70克拉粉红色梨形钻石之前的价格，这颗钻石会顺着衣领垂挂到女性的乳沟处。鉴赏家们认可这颗钻石，不仅仅是因为它形成时间长达百万年，他们更加看重的一点是制作这条项链需要一套色泽和清晰度都精确匹配的宝石――格拉夫为此花费了许多年的时间。
这些鉴赏家们也熟知这个街区中相对较新的一家珠宝店利维斯伟――它以开采、切凿、打磨以及出售华贵钻石而声名显赫。利维斯伟店中的宝石仅有2%-3%的用于零售收藏。例如前面提到的深蓝色彩钻，它是保藏在利维斯伟公司伦敦保险柜里的同花钻系列中的其中一颗；另有一颗50克拉的深黄色彩钻制成的戒指，以两条D色级（D-flawless）无瑕白带镶嵌两侧，价值130万英镑；还有一颗2克拉的深灰绿色公主彩钻，价值20.5万英镑，是利维斯伟公司10件同类钻石藏品之一。
利维斯伟公司的伦敦收藏品中颇令人好奇的是两颗变色钻石。对于收藏者来说，这两颗神奇的钻石不仅非常奇异而且是收藏品中的精华。钻石原本呈黄色，一旦暴露于灯光下就会变为深绿色，其中较小的那颗售价24.9万英镑。（穆萨耶夫和她的银行家们共同拥有一颗高克拉的变色钻石。）
尽管那些真正非凡的彩钻通常只是沙特阿拉伯王子、俄罗斯大亨和时髦的印度王公追逐的玩意儿，但是，穆萨耶夫强调说："市场并非只为六位数收入的客户专设的。半克拉重的粉色钻石虽然数量不大，但仍然是可以买到的。"
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"The concentration of the world's largest, finest coloured diamonds is in London now," says Dorrit Moussaieff, owner of the eponymous shop and a legendary dealer of diamonds. "If you go to the Place Vend?me or Fifth Avenue you will see nothing like it."
Indeed, says Melvyn Kirtley, vice-president of Tiffany, "the sheer weight and number of coloured diamonds on this street does not take away from their rarity."
"When talking about large, fancy stones, rarity cannot be underestimated," agrees Daniel White, UK business director of the Diamond Trade Centre. "Only one in 50 of all the stones polished is more than 0.2 carats, and just one in 10,000 of all the stones found are fancy coloureds. Thus, if you are looking at a fancy blue stone of more than 5 carats, one in a million is an understatement."
Of those one in 10,000 gem-quality stones, the four "Cs" (clarity, colour, cut and carat-weight) are assessed by the Gemological Institute of America to refine the market value of the diamond. The GIA estimates that only 4,000 carats of fancy diamonds are on the world market at any one time and a mere 50-60 carats of pink diamonds are mined in a year. As an indication of the rocketing prices for pinks, Moussaieff's daughter Tamara recalls, "In 1982 I remember offering $1,000 per carat for a very nice pink diamond. That same diamond today would be worth at least $200,000 per carat."
It is ironic that the nitrogen and boron atoms that create yellow and blue diamonds respectively were once considered impurities. Now - in order of rarity - red, orange, green, blue, pink and yellow diamonds lead the collectors' market. They are considered "the world's most concentrated form of wealth" and 24 of 25 of the highest prices paid at jewel auctions in the last decade were for coloured diamonds.
As Caroline Gruosi-Scheufele, co-president of Chopard, says: "There are only so many van Goghs in the world. The market now understands that you can probably not push more capital in a square centimetre and carry it around than you can in a coloured diamond."
In 2006, Gruosi-Scheufele bought and sold a pear-cut, 6.20-carat, natural orange-coloured diamond that was larger than Harry Winston's Pumpkin Diamond, which had previously toured the globe in The Splendor of Diamonds exhibition of the world's rarest stones. Alongside the great private collections and museums, the houses of Bond Street possess an astonishing percentage of these most magical of diamonds - and they are for sale.
Though Gruosi-Scheufele expresses regret that "a big connoisseur and friend of mine bought the orange right off my finger", she has grown equally attached to a 9.33-carat fancy deep blue VVS1 oval-cut blue diamond with a retail value of $700,000-per-carat, which she has set in 1.95 carats of pink diamonds.
Moussaieff's Bond Street boutique contains jewels that are beyond the dreams of the most avaricious Saudi princess, despite the fact that her most important coloured diamonds - including what is arguably the rarest coloured diamond in the world, remain in her bank vault.
The Moussaieff Red, shown at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC, in 2003 and London's Natural History Museum in 2005, is a 5.11-carat fancy red triangular-shaped diamond. As an indication of its rarity, the GIA has graded only five red diamonds and the Moussaieff Red is the largest. Holding and polishing the Moussaieff Red is rather akin to stroking the Mona Lisa's cheek. Mined in the 1990s, the red has certainly had fewer owners than Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece. As an indication of its value, the Hancock Red was sold at auction in 1987 for $880,000 and that stone was a mere 0.95 carats. Today the Moussaieff Red could command more than $20m.
As the holiday lights illuminate city streets from London to New York, it is worth noting that the sparkliest rainbow in the world is currently on view in Old Bond Street, home to the highest density of gem palaces. Leviev, Chatila, Chopard and David Morris blaze with a fireworks display of coloured diamonds, while Graff, which holds more than 60 per cent of the world's yellow diamond stock, appears to have displayed the entire reserve in one window alone.
"The concentration of the world's largest, finest coloured diamonds is in London now," says Dorrit Moussaieff, owner of the eponymous shop and a legendary dealer of diamonds. "If you go to the Place Vend?me or Fifth Avenue you will see nothing like it."
Indeed, says Melvyn Kirtley, vice-president of Tiffany, "the sheer weight and number of coloured diamonds on this street does not take away from their rarity."
"When talking about large, fancy stones, rarity cannot be underestimated," agrees Daniel White, UK business director of the Diamond Trade Centre. "Only one in 50 of all the stones polished is more than 0.2 carats, and just one in 10,000 of all the stones found are fancy coloureds. Thus, if you are looking at a fancy blue stone of more than 5 carats, one in a million is an understatement."
Of those one in 10,000 gem-quality stones, the four "Cs" (clarity, colour, cut and carat-weight) are assessed by the Gemological Institute of America to refine the market value of the diamond. The GIA estimates that only 4,000 carats of fancy diamonds are on the world market at any one time and a mere 50-60 carats of pink diamonds are mined in a year. As an indication of the rocketing prices for pinks, Moussaieff's daughter Tamara recalls, "In 1982 I remember offering $1,000 per carat for a very nice pink diamond. That same diamond today would be worth at least $200,000 per carat."
It is ironic that the nitrogen and boron atoms that create yellow and blue diamonds respectively were once considered impurities. Now - in order of rarity - red, orange, green, blue, pink and yellow diamonds lead the collectors' market. They are considered "the world's most concentrated form of wealth" and 24 of 25 of the highest prices paid at jewel auctions in the last decade were for coloured diamonds.
As Caroline Gruosi-Scheufele, co-president of Chopard, says: "There are only so many van Goghs in the world. The market now understands that you can probably not push more capital in a square centimetre and carry it around than you can in a coloured diamond."
In 2006, Gruosi-Scheufele bought and sold a pear-cut, 6.20-carat, natural orange-coloured diamond that was larger than Harry Winston's Pumpkin Diamond, which had previously toured the globe in The Splendor of Diamonds exhibition of the world's rarest stones. Alongside the great private collections and museums, the houses of Bond Street possess an astonishing percentage of these most magical of diamonds - and they are for sale.
Though Gruosi-Scheufele expresses regret that "a big connoisseur and friend of mine bought the orange right off my finger", she has grown equally attached to a 9.33-carat fancy deep blue VVS1 oval-cut blue diamond with a retail value of $700,000-per-carat, which she has set in 1.95 carats of pink diamonds.
Moussaieff's Bond Street boutique contains jewels that are beyond the dreams of the most avaricious Saudi princess, despite the fact that her most important coloured diamonds - including what is arguably the rarest coloured diamond in the world, remain in her bank vault.
A very important necklace has just been completed by the house of Graff, for example, that is an intricate filigree of the finest coloured diamonds - pinks, blues, cognacs and yellows of the subtlest hues. This waterfall of colour will sell for little short of $40m - and that's before Graff adds a 70-carat baby pink pear-shaped diamond that abseils from the collar into the lady's cleavage. Connoisseurs will recognise not only the million years it has taken to form the diamonds but the many years it has taken Graff to acquire a suite of stones of the precise colour and clarity required to create this necklace.
These connoisseurs will also be acquainted with the relatively new kid on the block, Leviev - a legend in the trade for its mining, cutting, polishing and selling of magnificent diamonds. Of the Leviev gems, only 2-3 per cent are used in the retail collection, such as the aforementioned fancy intense blue, one of a royal flush of diamonds held in Leviev's London vaults. Then there's the 50-carat fancy intense yellow diamond mounted as a ring and flanked by two D-flawless whites (£1.3m), and the 2-carat fancy dark green princess- cut diamond, one of 10 in the Leviev collection (£2.05m).
A curiosity in Leviev's London collection is two chameleon diamonds. For collectors these mysterious entities are both oddities and essentials. They are yellow diamonds that turn an intense green once exposed to light and the smallest of them retails for £249,000. (Moussaieff holds a high-carat chameleon with her bankers.)
Though the market for truly exceptional coloured diamonds is traditionally the preserve of Saudi princes, Russian oligarchs and modern maharajahs, Moussaieff notes: "The market is not exclusively for six-figure clients. A half-carat pink is accessible even though they don't exist in large quantities."
每当节日的灯火点亮从伦敦到纽约的城市街道，世界上最绚丽的"彩虹"就会闪耀现身老庞德街（Old Bond Street）――那里是聚集着无数宝石宫殿的圣地。利维斯伟（Leviev）、查提拉（Chatila）、萧邦（Chopard） 以及大卫·莫里斯（David Morris）等珠宝店在钻石光芒的辉映下耀眼夺目；而拥有全世界60%以上黄色钻石的格拉夫珠宝行（Graff），看起来仿佛把他们的全部珍藏都展示到一个橱窗里了。
伦敦--彩钻汇集地
"现在世界上最大、最精美的彩色钻石的聚集地是在伦敦。"享有盛名的珠宝经销商穆萨耶夫（Moussaieff）的店主多莉特·穆萨耶夫（Dorrit Moussaieff）说，"不管是在巴黎的旺多姆广场（Vend?me），还是纽约市的第五街（Fifth Avenue），你都无法找到可以与之媲美的珠宝圣地。"
的确如此，蒂梵尼珠宝店（Tiffany）的副总裁梅尔文·柯特利（Melvyn Kirtley）说："这条街上的彩钻举世罕见，不论数量和重量的大小，其珍稀性都不受影响。""大颗而且奇特的宝石，是非常稀有的。"
英国钻石贸易中心（Diamond Trade Centre）的业务主任丹尼尔·怀特（Daniel White）也赞成这一点，"在雕琢过的宝石中，通常50颗里才能发现1颗超过0.2克拉，而奇特的宝石更是万里挑一。因此，如果你看到一块奇特的、超过5克拉的蓝宝石，保守地说，这已经是百万里挑一了。"
因稀缺而珍贵
那些万里挑一的宝石要经过美国宝石学会（Gemological Institute of America，简称GIA）的"4C"评估――即净度(clarity)、 颜色(colour)、切工(cut)以及克拉重（carat-weight），以此来界定钻石的市场价值。据GIA估计，全世界的钻石市场上同时出现的奇特钻石加起来也只有4,000克拉，而且每年开采出的粉色钻石只有50至60克拉。粉色钻石的价格急剧上升，穆萨耶夫的女儿塔玛拉（Tamara）可以证明这一点。据她回忆："在1982年的时候，一颗非常精美的粉色钻石标价也就1,000美元，而在今天，同等品质的钻石最少价值20万美元。"
具有讽刺意味的是，分别由氮和硼元素形成的黄色和蓝色钻石曾被人认为品质不纯。然而如今，钻石却在按照其稀缺程度――红、橙、绿、蓝、粉、黄――引领着收藏市场。这些彩钻被认为是"世界上最为浓缩的财富"，在过去10年的珠宝拍卖会上，最高的25个拍卖价中有24个被彩色钻石包揽。
如萧邦珠宝店的联席总裁薛佛乐（Caroline Gruosi-Scheufele）所说："世界上就只有那么多凡高（van Goghs）作品。现在市场很明白，没有什么可以像彩钻一样，你可以将大量的资本投入到它那一平方厘米中，而且可以随身携带。"
2006年，薛佛乐购入并转手卖掉了一颗梨形、6.20克拉的天然橙色钻石，比海瑞·温斯顿（Harry Winston）的南瓜钻（Pumpkin Diamond）还要大。这颗南瓜钻曾在展示世界上最稀有宝石的"璀璨钻石展"（Splendor of Diamonds）上在全球巡回亮相。与规模宏大的私人收藏馆及博物馆相邻，老庞德街上的珠宝店拥有的迷人钻石所占的份额相当惊人，而且它们是供出售的。
尽管薛佛乐很遗憾地表示"一个非常内行的朋友从我这里淘走了那颗橙色钻石"，但她转而开始倾情于一颗9.33克拉、深蓝色VVS1钻石。这颗钻石成卵形，售价每克拉70万美元――这是她为1.95克拉的粉色钻石设定的价格。
彩钻的昂贵身价
穆萨耶夫在老庞德街上的这家专卖店拥有无数令人垂涎的珠宝，即便是最贪婪的沙特阿拉伯公主也难抵其诱惑――尽管她在银行保险柜里已经有了她最为垂青的彩钻，包括据称是世界上最稀有的彩钻。穆萨耶夫红钻（Moussaieff Red）是一颗5.11克拉、精美的三角形红色钻石，曾于2003年在华盛顿的史密森学会（Smithsonian）以及2005年在伦敦自然历史博物馆（Natural History Museum）分别展出。GIA只对5颗红色钻石进行过分级评估，而穆萨耶夫红钻是其中最大的，这足以显示其稀有和珍贵。拿在手里打磨它，犹如抚摸蒙娜丽莎的脸颊，圆润细腻。于20世纪90年代才开采出来的红色钻石，自然不会像利奥纳多·达芬奇（Leonardo da Vinci）的传世之作那样拥有那么多的收藏者。不过，重量仅有0.95克拉的汉考克红钻（Hancock Red）在1987年的拍卖会上卖出了88万美元的高价，这充分彰显了红色钻石的价值。现在，穆萨耶夫红钻的要价可以超过2,000万美元。
"这几年来，我们一直在进行公司历史上最大规模的彩钻收集。"蒂梵尼珠宝店的副总裁柯特利说，"但有一点很重要，我们收集这些钻石并不是要把它放到博物馆去。我们希望喜欢这些钻石的人们能佩戴它们并能在日常生活中享受其带来的乐趣。"这些珠宝包括一颗2.58克拉重的薄荷绿翡翠状彩钻，内部没有任何瑕疵：柯特利形容它为"绝无仅有的稀世珍品"。
高价出售前的装扮
同时，劳伦斯·格拉夫（Laurence Graff）在两年前曾买入并转手卖出几颗华贵的黄色钻石，如金星（Golden Star ，101.28 克拉）、沙皇皇后（Tsarina，90.14克拉）、金玛阿哈加（Golden Maharaja，65.57克拉）和107.46克拉的黄色罗耶特曼钻石（Rojtman Diamond）。随着油价的上涨，钟爱珠宝的中东和东南亚市场对具有如此品质的宝石如饥似渴――正如这些珠宝商们将会证实的，真正让这些钻石得以高价卖出的，是他们装扮钻石的方法。
一条颇有分量的项链刚刚在格拉夫珠宝行问世，这条项链镶嵌着一颗做工复杂而精致奇特的最好的彩钻――混有最稀薄微妙的粉色、蓝色、白兰地及黄色色调。这颗色彩似瀑布般荡漾的彩钻将以近4,000万美元的价格出售――那是在格拉夫外加一颗70克拉粉红色梨形钻石之前的价格，这颗钻石会顺着衣领垂挂到女性的乳沟处。鉴赏家们认可这颗钻石，不仅仅是因为它形成时间长达百万年，他们更加看重的一点是制作这条项链需要一套色泽和清晰度都精确匹配的宝石――格拉夫为此花费了许多年的时间。
这些鉴赏家们也熟知这个街区中相对较新的一家珠宝店利维斯伟――它以开采、切凿、打磨以及出售华贵钻石而声名显赫。利维斯伟店中的宝石仅有2%-3%的用于零售收藏。例如前面提到的深蓝色彩钻，它是保藏在利维斯伟公司伦敦保险柜里的同花钻系列中的其中一颗；另有一颗50克拉的深黄色彩钻制成的戒指，以两条D色级（D-flawless）无瑕白带镶嵌两侧，价值130万英镑；还有一颗2克拉的深灰绿色公主彩钻，价值20.5万英镑，是利维斯伟公司10件同类钻石藏品之一。
利维斯伟公司的伦敦收藏品中颇令人好奇的是两颗变色钻石。对于收藏者来说，这两颗神奇的钻石不仅非常奇异而且是收藏品中的精华。钻石原本呈黄色，一旦暴露于灯光下就会变为深绿色，其中较小的那颗售价24.9万英镑。（穆萨耶夫和她的银行家们共同拥有一颗高克拉的变色钻石。）
尽管那些真正非凡的彩钻通常只是沙特阿拉伯王子、俄罗斯大亨和时髦的印度王公追逐的玩意儿，但是，穆萨耶夫强调说："市场并非只为六位数收入的客户专设的。半克拉重的粉色钻石虽然数量不大，但仍然是可以买到的。"
关键字:双语阅读
生词表:
- density [´densiti]
n.浓(稠)密；密度 六级词汇 - fireworks [´faiəwə:ks] n.爆竹，焰火 六级词汇
- vice-president [vais´prezid(ə)nt] n.副总统；副会长 四级词汇
- refine [ri´fain] v.精炼；提纯；改进 四级词汇
- respectively [ri´spektivli] ad.各自地；分别地 四级词汇
- magical [´mædʒikəl] a.有魔术的，神奇的 六级词汇
- retail [´ri:teil, ri´teil] n.&a.&v.零售(商品的) 四级词汇
- holding [´həuldiŋ] n.保持，固定，存储 六级词汇
- masterpiece [´mɑ:stəpi:s] n.杰作；杰出的事 四级词汇
- auction [´ɔ:kʃən] n.&vt.拍卖 四级词汇
- necklace [´neklis] n.项链 四级词汇
- intricate [´intrikit] a.错综复杂的；难懂的 四级词汇
- precise [pri´sais] a.精确的；清楚的 四级词汇
- exceptional [ik´sepʃənəl] a.异常的，特别的 四级词汇
- exclusively [ik´sklu:sivli] ad.独有地；排外地 四级词汇
- accessible [ək´sesəbəl] a.易接近的；可到达的 四级词汇
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