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A one-of-a-kind ring cut from a single large diamond sold at auction for more than $256,000 Wednesday evening.
Designed by Apple’s chief design officer Jony Ive and industrial designer Marc Newson, the one-piece design does away with the metal band and settings traditionally used by jewelers.
Andreas Rentz/Getty Images for Conde' Nast International Luxury Conference
Jony Ive, left, and Marc Newson, pictured in 2015.
The item has between 2,000 and 3,000 facets, a number never previously seen in a single diamond piece, according to auction house Sotheby’s.
It was cut using a micrometer-thick (one millionth of a meter) water jet and a laser beam by Diamond Foundry, a company that produces laboratory diamonds at a facility in San Francisco.
The ring was auctioned off in Miami, with the proceeds donated to (RED), an HIV/AIDS charity set up by singer Bono and activist Bobby Shriver.
00:55 - Source: CNN
Huge pink diamond breaks world record at auction
It is the latest collaboration between Ive and Newson, whose joint projects have included a one-off Leica camera and a Christmas tree for London hotel Claridge’s.
The item’s final price exceeded its top estimate of $250,000 at the (RED) auction, which took place during the Art Basel and Design Miami fairs. It will be cut to fit the finger of the winning bidder.
Courtesy Sotheby's
A rare blue diamond, passed between Europe's royal houses for more than 300 years, sold at a Sotheby's auction for $6.7 million.
courtesy christies
The "Aurora Green" is the largest Fancy Vivid green diamond ever sold at auction. The stone went under the hammer on May 31, 2016 at Christie's auction house in Hong Kong, selling for $16,818,983.
Christies Images Ltd 2016
The world's largest blue diamond, an extremely rare gem known as "The Oppenheimer Blue", sold for $57.5 million at Christie's Geneva May 18, 2016, making it the most expensive diamond ever sold at auction.
Christies Images Ltd 2016
The 14.62 carat Fancy Vivid stone is mounted on a platinum ring and flanked on either side by a trapeze-shaped diamond.
courtesy sotheby's
'The Unique Pink' is the largest Fancy Vivid pink pear-shaped diamond to ever be offered at auction.
courtesy sotheby's
The diamond was sold for $31.6 million by Sotheby's, at an auction in Geneva. The price makes it the most expensive Fancy Vivid pink diamond to sell at auction.
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Cubic zirconia replicas of the original and a modern cut of the Kohinoor diamond, one of the oldest and most famous diamonds in the world.
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The De Beers Millennium Jewel 4 has broken auction records in Asia.
courtesy sotheby's
The stone sold for $31.8 million, which makes it the most expensive piece of jewelry sold at an auction in Asia.
Sotheby's
Sotheby's
auctioned this 9.54 carat ring it says belonged to child star Shirley Temple on April 19, 2016. Though it was expected to fetch between $25 million and $35 million, it failed to sell.
FABRICE COFFRINI/Getty Images
This 12.03-carat blue diamond fetched $48.4 million at auction on November 11, 2015. It was previously the world's most expensive price-per-carat diamond sold.
FABRICE COFFRINI/Getty Images
The fancy, vivid blue diamond was discovered in South Africa in January last year.
EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images
In recent years, other high-value diamonds have hit the auction block. The 59.60-carat oval cut pink diamond known as "The Pink Star," went for $80 million at a 2013 Sotheby's auction. However, after the buyer defaulted on payment, it was returned to Sotheby's.
Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images Europe/Getty Images
This 118.28 oval white diamond became the largest sold at auction when it went for $30.6 million at a Sotheby's auction in 2013.
Courtesy Sotheby's
In April 2015, a 100-carat, emerald cut, D color, internally flawless diamond -- the largest of its clarity and cut to ever be shown at auction --
sold for $22 million.
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images
The 76.02-carat 400-year-old Archduke Joseph diamond set a new record for price per carat for a colorless diamond in 2012, when it sold for $21.5 million at a Christie's auction.
Courtesy Chow Tai Fook
Jeweler Wallace Chan and a team of craftsman worked 47,000 hours to transform the stone it
into this piece, which Chai Tai Fook estimates could be worth $200 million.
It has been an eventful few weeks for diamonds at auction. In November, an 18.96-carat pink diamond sold for $50 million at Christie’s in Geneva, a new per-carat record price at auction.