A 34.64-carat pink diamond brought nearly $40 million at auction in New York, setting a new record for Christie's.

Described as "one of the largest and finest pink diamonds in the world," with a "fabulous provenance," by Christie's jewellery chief Francois Curiel, the so-called "Princie Diamond" sold to an anonymlous telephone bidder.

With a sale price of $39,323,750, or more than $1 million per carat, the pink gem first sold for 46,000 pounds in 1960.

It was once owned by the royal family of Hyderabad before selling to the London branch of Van Cleef & Arpels in 1960 for the equivalent of $1.3 million today, said Christie's.

The previous record price for diamond sold at Christie's was $24.3 million, for the 31-carat Wittelsbach diamond in 2008.