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A rare 37-carat emerald belonging to Prince Aga Khan has sold for nearly $9 million, making it the most expensive green stone in the world.

In 1960, Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan had commissioned Cartier to set this emerald in a brooch with 20 marquise-cut diamonds for UK socialite Nina Dyer, to whom he was briefly married. And in 1969, Dyer auctioned the emerald to raise money for animals.

Coincidentally, it was Christie's first ever sale of its kind in Switzerland, on the shores of Lake Geneva, and the emerald returned for its 110th auction this year.

It was bought by jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels, but a few years later passed into the hands of Harry Winston, nicknamed the "King of Diamonds."

"Emeralds are all the rage right now and this one ticks all the boxes," said Max Fawcett, head of jewelry at Christie's EMEA. "...We might see an emerald of this quality at auction once every five or six years."

The previous record holder—also set with diamonds—had sold for $6.5 million at an auction of part of Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor's famous jewelry collection in New York.

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