With assets such as property, stocks and cash having crashed in value, the two-year crisis has also reaffirmed faith in the worth of jewellery, bringing in new buyers, auction specialist Edmond Chin said in an interview with Reuters.

"The economic recession in Asia has resulted in an unprecedented number of pieces from private collections coming up for auction," said Chin, the director of jadeite jewellery and jewellery at Christie's Asia.

"Indonesians, Malaysians, Singaporeans, Taiwanese, people affected by the crisis, who had collected important diamonds in the past found that it would be useful for them to raise cash on their diamonds," Chin said.

Gems abound in Hong Kong

Hong Kong, traditionally a major Asian centre for precious stones, has become a place where the wealthy unload jewellery since the 1997 financial crisis set in.

"Following the crisis, we found that a lot of sellers appeared, so we were able to source a lot of jewellery locally. This in fact caused our business to expand," Chin said.

Christie's unveiled about a dozen dazzling pieces of jadeite and diamond jewellery on Thursday, which will go under the hammer in early November together with about 1,000 other items.

Among them was a 20.26 carat D/Flawless diamond, the largest oval-cut diamond ever to go under the hammer.