The Rainbow Collection: A Collector’s Dream of 300+ Fancy-Coloured Diamonds
Last weekend in Geneva I had the rare privilege of viewing the exceptional collection that Christie’s will soon present at its Magnificent Jewels sale. The spotlight falls on a single-lot assembly of over 300 loose fancy-coloured diamonds, aptly named The Rainbow Collection. The stones will be offered at auction in Geneva and represent one of the most extensive and conceptually coherent groupings of natural coloured diamonds to come to market.
The collection spans the full chromatic spectrum: reds, oranges, yellows, pinks, blues, browns and greys, each diamond selected for a hue that is singular and unrepeatable. Accompanied by 291 GIA reports dating between 2008 and 2025, the stones range in weight from 0.24 to 4.89 carats, covering an extraordinary range of tones — from vivid Yellow, Orange, Blue, Pink, Red, Brown and Grey hues to S to T colour. Among these, six stones have undergone treatment, a small number within such a vast and diverse collection, further underscoring the natural beauty and rarity of the remainder.
The late collector and diamond expert Eddy Elzas assembled this grouping over the course of his career. Starting as a diamond cleaver in South Africa before becoming a broker in the 1970s, Elzas developed a fascination for coloured diamonds at a time when they were still considered commercially less desirable than their white counterparts. His eye for nuance and balance transformed what was once overlooked into a dazzling celebration of colour and rarity.
In person, the display was quietly awe-inspiring. The diamonds sat under soft lighting in Geneva’s Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues, their hues vivid yet subtle, each stone whispering of nature’s artistry and human curation. The fact that the lot is offered as one single entity lends it both coherence and rarity; it is not simply “a group of stones,” but a curated narrative of colour in diamonds. Christie’s estimates the lot at between USD 2 million and USD 3 million.
From the vantage of someone working in the realm of luxury, bespoke jewellery and 1 of 1 pieces, this sale underscores several key currents. First, that the market increasingly acknowledges the value of natural fancy-coloured diamonds beyond the headline-grabbing “pink” or “blue” stones. Second, that a collector’s vision, here manifested by Elzas, can profoundly influence how we perceive colour, rarity and beauty in gem-quality diamonds.
In addition to The Rainbow Collection, Christie’s catalogue includes other remarkable lots, such as a fancy vivid-blue diamond of 9.51 carats, internally flawless, once owned by the American philanthropist and horticulturalist Bunny Mellon, a reminder that provenance, just like colour, continues to play a defining role in the world of high jewellery.
Images Credits: Christie’s
