The Sunrise Ruby

On May 12, 2015, Sotheby’s Geneva offered a gemstone that would redefine the market for rubies worldwide. The Sunrise Ruby — a 25.59-carat oval mixed-cut stone from Mogok, Myanmar — sold for CHF 28,255,000, equivalent to approximately $30.33 million at the time of sale. The result established a new world record for any ruby and, more significantly, for any colored gemstone ever sold at auction on a per-carat basis: $1,184,926 per carat.

The stone was certified by the Gemmological Research Laboratory Switzerland (GRS) as possessing a natural “pigeon blood” color — the most coveted designation in the ruby world — and was confirmed to be of Burmese origin without any indications of clarity enhancement.

A Stone That Defines a Category

The Sunrise Ruby is not simply a record. It is a reference point. Before this sale, the previous world record for a ruby at auction had been held by a Graff ruby — an 8.62-carat Burmese stone that sold at Sotheby’s Geneva in 2006 for approximately $8.6 million ($998,839 per carat). The Sunrise Ruby surpassed that benchmark by an order of magnitude in total value and confirmed that the most exceptional Burmese rubies now trade in the same price territory as top-quality blue diamonds.

What makes this result particularly significant is the weight. Gem-quality rubies above 10 carats are extremely rare; stones of this caliber above 20 carats are almost without precedent in the modern market. The combination of size, color, clarity, and unenhanced status made the Sunrise Ruby an essentially irreplaceable object.

The Pigeon Blood Standard

The term “pigeon blood” has been used in the Burmese trade for centuries to describe a very specific red — pure, vivid, with a slight blue undertone and a characteristic fluorescent glow visible even in daylight. The GRS laboratory was the first to formally introduce this designation into gemological certificates, and its application to the Sunrise Ruby reflects the highest possible grading in the ruby category.

Gübelin Gem Lab, the other leading authority on colored stones, uses the equivalent description “vivid red” and references the same qualities: strong saturation, minimal secondary hues, and a depth of color that remains consistent across lighting conditions.

For buyers and appraisers, a GRS or Gübelin certificate confirming pigeon blood quality for a Burmese ruby is not simply informational — it is the primary driver of value. Comparable stones without this designation consistently trade at a significant discount, regardless of their visual appearance.

Mogok: The Source Above All Sources

The Sunrise Ruby originates from the Mogok Valley, a mining region in the Mandalay Region of Myanmar with a documented history of ruby production spanning more than five centuries. Mogok rubies are formed in marble-hosted deposits that produce stones with exceptional color purity and a natural fluorescence under UV light — a characteristic that intensifies the perceived color in daylight and gives the finest specimens their characteristic “inner glow.”

Not all Mogok rubies are pigeon blood. But virtually all acknowledged pigeon blood rubies are Mogok. This distinction explains why origin certification has become as commercially important as color grading itself.

The GemmoPrice Perspective

The Sunrise Ruby sale remains the clearest expression of a principle that shapes the entire colored stone market: rarity at the intersection of multiple criteria — size, origin, color grade, and clarity status — produces values that are not gradual but exponential.

For professionals tracking the ruby segment through auction data, the lesson is structural. The top of the Burmese ruby market does not behave like the broader gemstone market. It behaves like a market for unique artifacts, where standard price-per-carat models must be supplemented by categorical rarity assessments.

GemmoPrice aggregates exactly this type of data: documented auction results for rubies across all major houses, segmented by origin, weight, certification, and treatment status — enabling professionals to contextualize exceptional results like the Sunrise Ruby within the broader arc of market history.