Iconic Rainbow Collection Hits Low Estimate
November 13, 25
(IDEX Online) - The Rainbow Collection of more than 300 fancy colored diamonds, assembled during a 40-year career by Eddy Elzas, sold for just over its low estimate at Christie's Geneva (on 11 November).
The pre-sale estimate for the collection, around 350 carats spanning the entire color spectrum, was $1.98m to $2.98m. It sold for $2.19m.
Press reports over the years valued the Rainbow Collection at $60m to $100m.
On one occasion Elzas, known as the King of Colored Diamonds, turned down a huge, though unspecified, offer from a Saudi prince, who wanted to buy the collection as a wedding gift for Charles and Diana.
Elzas, largely credited with pioneering the fancy color diamond industry, died in November 2021, aged 79.
Christie's described his Rainbow Collection an impressive collection of unmounted colored diamonds and treated colored diamonds, comprising 300 coloured diamonds, of different hues and shapes.
The collection came with 291 GIA reports from 2008 and 2025. The stones ranged from 0.24-cts to 4.89-cts, in yellow, orange, blue, pink, red, brown and grey hues.