The biggest ruby ever offered for sale may bring more than $30 million

A 55.22-carat ruby is on track to become the biggest and most expensive stone of its kind to ever be offered at auction, should it sell for more than $30.3 million.

Less than a year after being discovered at one of Fura Gems’ mines in Mozambique, the stone is scheduled to be auctioned off in New York in June.

Sotheby’s referred to the gem as “exceedingly rare” and “the most valuable and important” ruby to have hit the market while announcing the transaction on Wednesday. The stone, known as Estrela de Fura (or Star of Fura in Portuguese), is anticipated to sell for “in excess of” $30 million, according to the auction house.

Rubies are regarded as some of the world’s rarest and most valuable gemstones, despite the fact that colored diamonds, in particular, dominate record gemstone sales. The Sunrise Ruby, a 25.59-carat stone discovered in Myanmar that sold for $30.3 million in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2015, set the previous record for a ruby at auction.

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The rough stone from which Estrela de Fura was carved grabbed headlines when it was discovered by miners in July of last year. It was the largest gem-quality ruby ever discovered, weighing 101 carats at its discovery, almost twice as much as it does now.

Before being sold, a gemstone must be polished, cut into a smaller, symmetrical shape, and cleaned to remove impurities and enhance its color and brilliance. The Swiss Gemmological Institute’s analysis, according to Sotheby’s, stated that this had “resulted in brilliant crimson colors due to many internal reflections.”

Dev Shetty, the founder and CEO of Fura Gems, stated in a statement that stones of this size and caliber are “nearly unheard of.” Although Mozambique’s rubies were only discovered a few decades ago, the country’s industry didn’t really take off until 2009, when a sizable deposit of the stones was discovered close to the city of Montepuez in the country’s north. One of the most successful nations in the world now for mining rubies in Mozambique.