32-carat diamond sells for $7.6 million

Buyer unknown for gem once owned by philanthropist Leonore Annenberg

	The Annenberg Diamond, shown in a a press preview of Christie's fall jewelry auction, is a 32.01 carat stone, mounted as a ring and flanked by more two pear-shaped diamonds.
Michael Nagle / Getty Images file

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updated 5:31 p.m. ET Oct. 21, 2009

NEW YORK - A square, 32.01-carat emerald-cut diamond that billionaire philanthropist Leonore Annenberg bought for her 90th birthday has been sold for $7.6 million at a New York City auction.

About the size of a walnut, the flawless diamond sits on a ring, flanked on both sides by smaller pear-shaped diamonds. It was designed by Manhattan jeweler David Webb.

Christie's had estimated it would sell for $3 million to $5 million. The auction house said the previous record for a 30-carat square cut diamond was $3.1 million.

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The buyer at Wednesday's auction was not immediately identified.

Annenberg died in March. She was 91. She was U.S. chief of protocol in the Reagan administration. Her husband, billionaire publisher Walter Annenberg, died in 2002.

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