Gold roses, anyone?

The roses, which were made of Au99.99 gold foil were displayed in the shape of a heart at a jeweley store in Nanjing, the capital of East China's Jiangsu province on Dec 15.

They are worth 600,000 yuan (US$90,165) and were bought by a man, whose surname means 'gold' in Chinese, according to an online report.

UAE hotel erects 11-million-dollar Christmas tree

ABU DHABI (AFP) - – Christmas came in extravagant fashion to the Muslim desert emirate of Abu Dhabi as a glitzy hotel unveiled a bejewelled Christmas tree valued at more than 11 million dollars on Wednesday.
It is the "most expensive Christmas tree ever," with a "value of over 11 million dollars," said Hans Olbertz, general manager of Emirates Palace hotel, at its inauguration.
The 13-metre (40-foot) faux evergreen, located in the gold leaf-bedecked rotunda of the hotel, is decorated with silver and gold bows, ball-shaped ornaments and small white lights.

But the necklaces, earrings and other jewellery draped around the tree's branches are what give it a record value.

It holds a total of 181 diamonds, pearls, emeralds, sapphires and other precious stones, said Khalifa Khouri, owner of Style Gallery, which provided the jewellery.

"The tree itself is about 10,000 dollars," Olbertz said. "The jewellery has a value of over 11 million dollars -- I think 11.4, 11.5."

This will probably be an entry into the Guinness book of world records, Olbertz said, adding that Emirates Palace planned to contact the organisation about the tree which is to stay until the end of the year.

Asked if the tree might offend religious sensibilities in the United Arab Emirates, where the vast majority of the local population is Muslim, Olbertz said he did not think it would. "It's a very liberal country," he said.

The hotel has had a Christmas tree up in previous years, but this year "we said we have to do something different," and the hotel's marketing team hatched the plan, said Olbertz.

The tree is not the first extravagant offering from Emirates Palace -- a massive, dome-topped hotel sitting amid fountains and carefully manicured lawns.

The hotel, which bills itself as seven-star, in February introduced a package for a seven-day stay priced at one million dollars.

Takers of the package have a private butler and a chauffeur driven Maybach luxury car at their disposal during their stay, as well as a private jet available for trips to other countries in the region.

And in May, the hotel opened a gold vending machine, becoming the first place outside Germany to install "gold to go, the world's first gold vending machine," said Ex Oriente Lux AG, the German company behind the machine.

Diamond swapper nabbed

A MAN has been arrested for swapping real diamonds with replica diamond crystals at goldsmith shops.

Police arrested the 38-year-old suspect on Thursday night.

The man entered busy goldsmith stores, pretending as if he wanted to purchase a one-carat diamond and asking to examine it.

He would wait for the shop attendant to look away or attend to other customers before swapping the genuine diamond for the fake. The man would then leave the store claiming he needed more time to consider.

The suspect was caught near Yio Chu Kang MRT station in an operation staged on Thursday.

He will be tried in court for cheating on Saturday under Section 420 Chapter 224. If convicted, he faces imprisonment of up to 10 years and shall also be liable to fine.

Pink diamond sells for record $46M at auction

GENEVA – A rare pink diamond smashed the world record for a jewel at auction Tuesday, selling for more than $46 million to a well-known gem dealer.
London jeweler Laurence Graff paid $46,158,674, for the 24.78-carat "fancy intense pink" diamond, which he immediately named "The Graff Pink."
"It is the most fabulous diamond I've seen in the history of my career and I'm delighted to have bought it," Graff said in a statement released by auction house Sotheby's, which offered the stone at its Geneva sale.
The sale price was almost double the $24.3 million achieved by the blue 35.56-carat Wittelsbach-Graff diamond in 2008. That was also bought by Graff.
"This is the highest price ever bid for a jewel at auction," said David Bennett, the head of Sotheby's jewelry division, as the auction room in Geneva's luxury Beau Rivage hotel erupted into applause.
"Everybody was surprised it went that high," Mart van Drunen, a jeweler from Amsterdam, commented after the sale. "He clearly wants to have all the rarest diamonds in the world."
Rich buyers from developing countries have been dipping their hand in the high end of the market in recent years, but experts say emerging middle classes particularly in India are doing as much if not more to lift prices. Ongoing doubts about the stock market have also helped drive up the value of gold and precious jewels, said van Drunen.
Four bidders competed for the pink diamond, which was last sold 60 years ago by New York jeweler Harry Winston. The seller chose to remain anonymous, said Sotheby's.
Graff had the blue diamond recut after purchase, to the displeasure of purists who considered it an act of vandalism against a unique object. It wasn't immediately known whether he planned to alter the pink diamond, which Sotheby's says has a flaw unnoticeable to the naked eye but may be graded as internally flawless after re-polishing.
Sotheby's said it sold jewels worth $105.1 million Tuesday, also a world record for a single sale. The auction included items once belonging to Christina Onassis, the daughter of the Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, and Cristina Ford, the second wife of Henry Ford's grandson Henry Ford II."I think this tells you a bit about the health of the market," Bennett told reporters after the sale.

A Sotheby's employee displays a 24.78 carat fancy intense pink emerald-cut diamond ring during an auction …

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Gold hits record on inflation worry, Europe debt

By Rujun Shen

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Gold rose to a record for the fourth straight session on Tuesday as inflation worries and euro zone sovereign debt woes continue to lure investors to precious metals.

Spot silver hit a new 30-year high of $28.16, and palladium extended gains to a new nine-year peak of $714.25. Spot gold rose to an all-time high of $1,414.60 an ounce, before easing to $1,413.50 by 0706 GMT.

"Liquidity is being thrown into the market place, the dollar is being debased as a way the U.S. government can get out of debt obligations, while Asian central banks keep buying dollars and keep their currencies cheap," said a Singapore-based trader.

"Hard assets are just going to continue to benefit. There is a good argument for these metals to go up. There is a lot of momentum to buy."

The target for this round of rally could be $1,475 or even $1,500, in the next three weeks, the trader added.

Vietnam's central bank said it would relax a gold import ban and allow in "reasonable volumes" to stabilise the domestic market, a move that is expected support sentiment.

Holdings in the world's largest gold-backed exchange traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust, gained 2.43 tonnes to 1,294.196 tonnes, their highest so far this month.

Gold is expected to rise towards $1,430 per ounce, as the uptrend is steady and a wave "5" is advancing, said Wang Tao, a Reuters technical analyst.

Lunar New Year 2011 coins

Christmas is not even over... and UOB has already started to send out its brochure for the Gold Coins to usher in the year of the rabbits!

Must say that the collection for the 2011 Lunar New Year of the Rabbit looks pretty nice.

Personally, I have not purchased any such coins from UOB, as I purchase mine from Singapore Mint on a yearly basis.

So perhaps, this year, I will have an option?