The "Pink Star", a flawless pinkdiamond the size of a plum, sold for 76.3 million Swiss francs($83.02 million) in Geneva on Wednesday, a world record pricefor a gemstone at auction, Sotheby's said.

"The diamond was bought by Isaac Wolf and the diamond hasbeen renamed The Pink Dream," said Matthew Weigman, Sotheby'sworldwide director of sales communications.

Wolf, a New York-based diamond cutter, was represented by abidder in the room and Sotheby's said the final sale priceincluded the "buyer's premium," or commission fees.

In all, four people, including two Asian clients, bid on theoval-shaped diamond, which was mounted on a ring and weighed59.60 carats, he said.

As Sotheby's auctioneer David Bennett brought down thehammer in the Geneva salesroom, applause erupted. "You'llforgive me," he said, as the theme song from the "Pink Panther"was played.

The Pink Star was the star lot at Sotheby's jewels sale in Geneva, held in a heavily guarded hotel showroom.

HISTORIC SALE

It was the highest jewellery sale total for a single auctionin history - $199.5 million, Sotheby's said.

"This was a really historic sale. We broke a number ofrecords," Bennett told reporters.

"The pink diamond, I have no hesitation in saying, is atruly amazing royal stone, fit for any royal collection, fit forany museum collection.

"There is no stone of that size and colour known, no otherstone."

Noting that the diamond's pre-sale estimate was $61 million,Bennett said: "It surpassed our estimate. It's a large amount ofmoney in itself, but I don't think this stone has a price."

The previous record was held by the "Graff Pink", a 24.78carat fancy intense pink diamond bought in 2010 by LaurenceGraff, a London-based jeweller known as "The King of Diamonds", for 45.44 million Swiss francs, or $45.75 million at the time.

"Frankly when I sold the Graff three years ago, I thought itwould be a record for a very long time. Tonight's price isreally quite extraordinary three years later," Bennett said.

"It means the three top prices paid for gemstones are allpink diamonds."

The Pink Star was cut and polished from a 132.5 carat roughdiamond mined by De Beers somewhere in Africa in 1999, accordingto Sotheby's, which said it had no information on the precisegeographic origin.

It was first sold in 2007 and the seller wished to remainanonymous, said a Sotheby's spokeswoman.

Signature pieces by top-end European jewellers includingCartier, Bulgari and Van Cleef & Arpels fetched steep prices atSotheby's, especially from the Art Deco period of the 1930s.

The second highest price at the auction, 9.68 million Swissfrancs, was fetched by a 1971 Van Cleef & Arpels brooch of aphoenix, set with diamonds, emeralds and a large cabochonsapphire with a detachable yellow briolette diamond hanging fromthe bird's beak.

The brooch previously belonged to the late Polish opera starand jewellery collector Ganna Walska.

Bidding on the night's third priciest lot, a pair of diamondearrings, described by Bennett as a "perfect match," opened at 5million francs and was bought for 8.45 million francs by atelephone bidder. The stones weighed 23.77 and 23.78 carats.

Few lots were unsold at the auction and the prices achieveswere generally many times more than their pre-sale estimates.

About a dozen jewels from the collection of French countessOdile de la Rochefoucauld were sold for the benefit of charity. They included a sautoir composed of 630 pearls sold for 180,000francs.

"Believe it or not, it's 3.5 feet long and was used forskipping by the young girls in the house. But you don't have touse it for skipping, you can wear it," Bennett quipped.

At rival Christie's on Tuesday night, an orange diamond of14.82 carats sold for 32.64 million Swiss francs. ($1 = 0.9191 Swiss francs)