The dual stone legacy necklace set a record at a Canadian auction

A necklace designed by the late Elena Valentina of Chicago-based jeweller Valentina Rings sold this week for $ 350,000 CAD at a Canadian auction, setting a record for lab-grown diamond jewellery and sparking fresh debate over the long-running divide between natural and lab-grown diamonds.

The dual-stone legacy piece, featuring a 6.82 carat white lab-grown diamond and a 5.49 carat champagne lab-grown diamond set in recycled 18k gold, drew international bidders from New York, London, and Dubai. Auctioneers confirmed it as the highest recorded sale for lab-grown diamond jewellery of its kind.

“This result proves what many in the industry have resisted for years — lab-grown diamond jewellery can command prestige, legitimacy, and record-breaking value,” said a Toronto-based jewellery analyst. “It is a hard rebuttal to decades of discrimination by natural diamond sellers who frame lab-grown as cheap or inferior.”