Deals like this—high-price purchases of colored diamonds by investors—have become more commonplace in recent years. Prices of colored diamonds, the report adds, have risen 122% in the same period. There has “absolutely” been a growth in the number of investors buying colored diamonds, says Eden Rachminov, managing partner of Tel-Aviv-based Rachminov Diamonds, one of the world’s biggest cutters of colored diamonds. Now, growing demand for colored diamonds has been so strong that brown diamonds, once considered mostly for industrial use, are sold as “champagne,” “cognac” or “chocolate” diamonds and can fetch several thousand dollars a carat. The burgeoning market for colored diamonds is also one of the most opaque.

Source: Wall Street Journal January 16, 2017 03:01 UTC