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Sotheby’s to Auction World’s Largest Ruby in New York in June

An employee shines a light at the 55.22 carat "The Estrela de Fura" ruby, the largest in the world and expected to fetch up to $30 million in an upcoming New York auction, during a preview at Sotheby's, in Hong Kong, China April 17, 2023. (Reuters)
An employee shines a light at the 55.22 carat "The Estrela de Fura" ruby, the largest in the world and expected to fetch up to $30 million in an upcoming New York auction, during a preview at Sotheby's, in Hong Kong, China April 17, 2023. (Reuters)
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Sotheby’s to Auction World’s Largest Ruby in New York in June

An employee shines a light at the 55.22 carat "The Estrela de Fura" ruby, the largest in the world and expected to fetch up to $30 million in an upcoming New York auction, during a preview at Sotheby's, in Hong Kong, China April 17, 2023. (Reuters)
An employee shines a light at the 55.22 carat "The Estrela de Fura" ruby, the largest in the world and expected to fetch up to $30 million in an upcoming New York auction, during a preview at Sotheby's, in Hong Kong, China April 17, 2023. (Reuters)

The largest ruby in the world to come to auction will be offered by Sotheby's in New York in June, the auction house said at a preview in Hong Kong on Monday, and is estimated to achieve more than $30 million.

That would probably make the 55.22-carat gem, known as the Estrela de Fura, the most expensive ruby ever sold at auction, said Uni Kim, a specialist in Sotheby's jewellery department in the Asian financial capital.

"It is from Mozambique, which is also one of the new and more popular origins that we see for rubies, apart from the more traditional and the classic Burmese pieces," Kim added.

The current world record for a ruby sold at auction was set in May 2015 by "Sunrise Ruby," a 25.59-carat Burmese stone that fetched $30.3 million at Sotheby's in Geneva.

The new stone, whose name means "Star of Fura" in Portuguese, was unearthed from mining company Fura’s ruby mine in Mozambique's northern region of Montepeuz in July 2022.

Kim said the ruby, to be offered at Sotheby's Magnificent Jewels sale, was a 101-carat rough gemstone when first discovered, fueling excitement among many in the gem industry.

The quality and size of the gemstone "is almost unheard of", Dev Shetty, the chief executive of Fura Gems, said in a statement.

"We estimate Estrela de Fura to be sold in excess of $30 million," Kim added. "Hopefully we'll be able to see it just setting a new record for Mozambique rubies."

After being exhibited in Hong Kong, the gem will be displayed in Taipei, China, Singapore, Geneva and Dubai, before being auctioned in New York on June 8.

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Varieties

'Social Studies' TV Series Takes Intimate Dive into Teens' Smartphone Life

This is the first generation born into a world with widespread social media. LOIC VENANCE / AFP/File
This is the first generation born into a world with widespread social media. LOIC VENANCE / AFP/File
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'Social Studies' TV Series Takes Intimate Dive into Teens' Smartphone Life

This is the first generation born into a world with widespread social media. LOIC VENANCE / AFP/File
This is the first generation born into a world with widespread social media. LOIC VENANCE / AFP/File

Sifting through the smartphones of dozens of US teens who agreed to share their social media content over the course of a year, filmmaker Lauren Greenfield came to a somber observation.
The kids are "very, very conscious of the mostly negative effects" these platforms are having on them -- and yet they just can't quit.
Greenfield's documentary series "Social Studies," premiering on Disney's FX and Hulu on Friday, arrives at a time of proliferating warnings about the dangers of social networks, particularly on young minds.
The show offers a frightening but moving immersion into the online lives of Gen Z youths, AFP said.
Across five roughly hour-long episodes, viewers get a crash course in just how much more difficult those thorny adolescent years have become in a world governed by algorithms.
In particular, the challenges faced by young people between ages 16 and 20 center on the permanent social pressure induced by platforms like Instagram and TikTok.
For example, we meet Sydney, who earns social media "likes" through increasingly revealing outfits; Jonathan, a diligent student who misses out on his top university picks and is immediately confronted with triumphant "stories" of those who were admitted; and Cooper, disturbed by accounts that glorify anorexia.
"I think social media makes a lot of teens feel like shit, but they don't know how to get off it," says Cooper, in the series.
'Like me more'
This is the first generation born into a world with widespread social media.
Via its subjects' personal smartphone accounts, the show offers a rare glimpse into the ways in which that hyper-connected reality has distorted the process of growing up.
We see how young people modify their body shapes with the swipe of a finger before posting photos, the panic that grips a high school due to fake rumors of a shooting.
"It's hard to tell what's been put into your mind, and what you actually like," says one anonymous girl, in a group discussion filmed for the docuseries.
These discussion circles between adolescents punctuate "Social Studies," and reveal the contradictions between the many young people's online personas, and their underlying anxieties.
Speaking candidly in a group, they complain about harassment, the lack of regulation on social media platforms, and the impossible beauty standards hammered home by their smartphones.
"If I see people with a six pack, I'm like: 'I want that.' Because maybe people would like me more," admits an anonymous Latino boy.
'Lost your social life'
The series is not entirely downbeat.
But the overall sense is a generation disoriented by the great digital whirlwind.
There are no psychologists or computer scientists in the series.
"The experts are the kids," Greenfield told a press conference this summer. "It was actually an opportunity to not go in with any preconceptions."
While "Social Studies" does not offer any judgment, its evidence would appear to support many of the recent health warnings surrounding hyper-online young people.
The US surgeon general, the country's top doctor, recently called for warning labels on social media platforms, which he said were incubating a mental health crisis.
And banning smartphones in schools appears to be a rare area of bipartisan consensus in a politically polarized nation.
Republican-led Florida has implemented a ban, and the Democratic governor of California signed a new law curbing phone use in schools on Monday.
"Collective action is the only way," said Greenfield.
Teenagers "all say 'if you're the only one that goes off (social media), you lost your social life.'"