Has Ben Affleck started the demand for pink diamonds?

In 2002, Ben Affleck went into Harry Winston’s store to look for a huge pink diamond for a particular woman he wanted to propose to, Jennifer Lopez.

Some say it’s because Jennifer Lopez loved pink. But maybe Ben Affleck was a jewellery visionary or a trendsetter who had an eye for the future and future investments.

He bought a huge pink diamond, which was also then a very rare and valuable coloured diamond. Still, not many people knew anything about coloured diamonds at that time.

Since then, pink diamonds have been sold for astronomical sums.

The “Princie Pink” diamond was sold in 2016 by Christie’s for over 30 million USD; it was first seen 300 years earlier when no one attached any exceptional value to it because nobody liked pink diamonds.

White diamonds dominated the diamond markets until the 1990s, and until 1990 there was only a minimal demand for coloured diamonds.

The “Bennifer” engagement ring was one of the first times a pink diamond reached the international news media. Now it seems like there’s a record-breaking pink or blue diamond up for auction every year. The coloured diamonds have become the most famous diamonds in the world, a bit like a trophy that results in bidding wars at the big auctions.

Prices have now reached astronomical heights.

In 2009, the “vivid pink” diamond, a 5-carat cushion cut fancy pink diamond, was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong Auction for USD 11 million.

In 2016, a 9-carat drop-shaped fancy vivid diamond sold for US$18 million.

In 2017, a 15-carat fancy vivid pink was sold for US$32 million.

Not to mention the “pink Legacy”, which in 2018 set a world record when it was sold at Christie’s in Geneva for USD 50 million.

And then we haven’t even talked about whether Ben Affleck got a commission to help start the trend with the pink diamonds.

The couple later split up, but last year got engaged again, this time with a giant green diamond. But that’s an entirely different story.