The Pink Legacy, which once belonged to the Oppenheimer family which for decades ran the De Beers diamond mining company, was snapped up by American luxury brand Harry Wilson, part of the Swiss Swatch group.

“$2.6 million per carat. That is a world record per carat for a pink diamond,” said Francois Curiel, head of Christie’s in Europe.

“This stone is for me the Leonardo da Vinci of diamonds,” he added.

The stone was immediately rechristened the “Winston Pink Legacy” by its buyers.

Christie’s international head of jewellery, Rahul Kadakia, described The Pink Legacy as “one of the world’s greatest diamonds”.

The rectangular-cut diamond has been graded “fancy vivid” — the highest possible grade of colour intensity.

The stone was discovered in a South African mine around a century ago and was probably cut in the 1920 and has not been altered since, Christie’s said.

– 1920s gem –

“Imagine a domino that you have cut the corners off of,” Jean-Marc Lunel, an international jewellery specialist at Christie’s, recently told AFP.

He pointed out that the cut is a “classical so-called emerald cut”, which stands out from the typical, more rounded, multi-facetted cuts used today.

The classic rectangular cut is traditionally used for white stones, but is rare for pink diamonds.

Christie’s said the Pink Legacy is “the largest and finest Fancy Vivid Pink diamond ever offered at auction by the company,” calling the stone “incomparable.”

“It is probably the most beautiful (specimen) ever presented at public auction,” Lunel said.

Christie’s, which had refused to reveal the name of the seller, said only four vivid pink diamonds or over 10 carats have ever been offered at auction.

One of them, the nearly 15-carat Pink Promise, was sold last November at a Christie’s auction in Hong Kong for $32.5 million. That amounts to $2.176 million per carat, which was previously the world auction record price per carat for any pink diamond.

Lee, the face of comic book culture in the United States, died early Monday in Los Angeles after suffering a number of illnesses in recent years.

“With a heavy heart, we share our deepest condolences with his daughter and brother,” said Marvel Comics and its owner The Walt Disney Company in a statement.

“We honor and remember the creator, voice and champion of Marvel… Every time you open a Marvel comic, Stan will be there.”

The New Yorker, known for his distinctive tinted glasses and impish grin, ended up in the comics business by accident, thanks to an uncle who got him a job when he was a teenager filling artists’ inkwells and fetching coffee.

“I felt someday I’d write the ‘Great American Novel’ and I didn’t want to use my real name on these silly little comics,” Lee once said, explaining why he had forsaken his given name, Stanley Lieber.

Lee rose through the ranks to become a comics writer — making millions of superhero fans dream of his fantastic universes and humans with extraordinary powers — and eventually led the Marvel empire for decades as its publisher.

From Spidey to Black Panther to the X-Men and the Fantastic Four, Lee collaborated with other authors and illustrators to put his lively imagination on the page.

Iron Man, Thor and Doctor Strange would follow — and today, all three heroes have multi-film franchises that rake in hundreds of millions of dollars.

“Stan Lee was as extraordinary as the characters he created,” said Disney CEO Bob Iger. “A superhero in his own right to Marvel fans around the world, Stan had the power to inspire, to entertain, and to connect.”

‘The King’ and ‘The Man’

Lee has appeared in cameo roles in nearly every movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe — including as a bus driver in “Avengers: Infinity War,” a film that united many of the indelible characters he brought to life.

“I used to be embarrassed because I was just a comic book writer while other people were building bridges or going on to medical careers,” Lee said.

“And then I began to realize: entertainment is one of the most important things in people’s lives. Without it, they might go off the deep end.”

Born on December 28, 1922 to Jewish immigrants who migrated to the United States from Romania, Lee got that first assistant’s job at age 17 at Timely Comics and began rising through the ranks.

After a stint in the US Army during World War II Lee returned to comics, teaming up with illustrator Jack Kirby in the 1960s to invent the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man.

It was a partnership for the ages — Kirby, the artist, was “The King” and Lee, the writer, was “The Man.”

Together they would pioneer new ways to tell stories, with deeply flawed heroes and serious themes — all while maintaining the wonder of traditional superhero lore. Even villains showed complicated feelings.

“When the time came to create a teenaged hero for Marvel Comics, I decided to depict him as a bumbling real-life teenager who by some miracle had acquired a super power,” Lee wrote in a 1977 column, “How I Invented Spider-Man.”

“If you suddenly gained the muscle power of a hundred men and could outwrestle King Kong, it doesn’t mean you still wouldn’t have to worry about dandruff or acne, right?

– The Marvel Universe –

Lee and his collaborators churned out hit after hit and he took over at Marvel in the 1960s, creating the “Marvel Universe” — all of the heroes existed in the same time and story crossovers were frequent.

It’s a model now adopted by the Hollywood producers beyond the Marvel Cinematic Universe — which releases its 21st film, “Captain Marvel,” in March next year.

Lee formally left Marvel in the 1990s but remained chairman emeritus. He was the brand’s most recognizable face, giving lectures and speaking at comics conventions.

“My father loved all of his fans,” his daughter JC told Hollywood celebrity news portal TMZ. “He was the greatest, most decent man.”

In recent years, as Lee reached his 90s, he ran into legal troubles and scandal. A massage therapist sued him for sexual assault, accusing him of inappropriate touching during two sessions in 2017. Lee denied the allegations.

There were also claims that people around the Marvel legend — who was worth tens of millions of dollars — were trying to access his wealth, and that he was the victim of elder abuse at the hands of his manager and his daughter JC.

Lee’s wife of nearly 70 years, Joan, died in 2017.

Hollywood quickly took to social media to pay tribute to the late superhero of comics.

“My youth wouldn’t have been the same without him. So grateful to have met the guy, and told him how thankful I was for his work,” tweeted Australian filmmaker James Wan.

Edgar Wright, the British director of “Shaun of the Dead” and “Baby Driver” used Lee’s catchphrase in his eulogy: “Thanks for inspiring so many of us to pick up a pen or pencil and put your dreams onto paper.”

“Excelsior!”

AIA Thailand turns 80 this year and to mark the occasion, it flew its global ambassador, former top footballer David Beckham, to Bangkok to help promote its #WhatsYourWhy campaign and also kick a ball around with kids at Impact, Muang Thong Thani.

A true family man and health influencer, Beckham plays a leading role in motivating and encouraging people to live a healthy life by changing their behaviour, adopting better eating habits and taking regular exercise.

The star of #WhatsYourWhy has long had a soft spot for Thailand and says he’s thankful for the support he has always enjoyed from his Thai fans.

He recently sat down for an informal chat with the Thai press. Excerpts

AS AIA’S GLOBAL AMBASSADOR, YOU TAKE AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN PROMOTING THE #WHATSYOURWHY CAMPAIGN VIDEO, WHICH HAS NOW BEEN VIEWED MORE THAN 16.2 MILLION TIMES ON THE SOCIAL NETWORKS. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

I believed in #WhatsYourWhy from the first moment I heard about it. The campaign focuses on what you care about and what you feel is important. The campaign has been such a success because people really see what you care about. My ‘why’ is always my family. It all revolves around the kids. They are our future. You have to set the right example as whatever you do, children will follow. The campaign resonates with people; family, friends, children and loved ones.

CAN YOU EXPLAIN IN YOUR OWN WORDS WHY YOU WANT TO BE HEALTHY AND LOVE YOUR LIFE?

It’s important because you need to set the right message as a role model. One of the reasons I wanted to partner with AIA was to send the right message to many people and help people to live longer and better. I have four young children, I want to set the right example to them. I’ve always said it’s about the small things and sometimes it is the smallest things that actually make the big changes.

WHAT IS YOUR PERSPECTIVE ON LEADING A HEALTHIER LIFE?

I’m quite lucky. I’ve had a career that has been going on for 22 years, a long time for a footballer. I have to be healthy, I have to look after myself but I also grew up in a world where players didn’t look after themselves as much as they do now. I’m lucky because I’m the generation that started to be concerned about being healthy –eating the right things and doing what we can to stay fit and to prolong our careers. My children were born when I was young too, so they’ve lived my career with me, they’ve watched what I do, what I eat, watched me work hard as a footballer and hopefully that set the right example for them.

WHAT DO YOU CALL A HEALTHY DIET? DO YOU LIKE THAI FOOD?

I love to eat. I think it is down to the individual. If you make small changes, you can eat whatever you want but you need to be balanced. I love Thai food, I love spice, of course. (Laughs) At the end of the day, we all have a busy life. At home I have four children to get to school on time. They need to eat breakfast, it can be difficult, but I always ask them to grab a banana or something to eat on the way. It’s a choice. Diet is such an important part of your life.

I’ve been to Thailand many times and I always love coming back. The fans always welcome me here. Many of my visits were with my team so I understand people loving me because of the team I played for. Now I come on my own and it is nice to see the real support I enjoy. I love visiting other countries. This is one of my favourites as I am always welcomed with open arms. I don’t need an excuse to come back here; every time is incredible.

There are so many memories but each trip is different. The highlight is always working with the kids because children are so honest, they do exactly what they think without any filters. That’s the great thing about kids. I think just working with the kids, making smoothies with them, trying to make them understand broccoli, strawberries and bananas are great, for me, this is the biggest reward. And we get to play a little football too!

THAILAND HAS NEVER QUALIFIED FOR THE WORLD CUP. HOW DO WE DO IT?

It’s hard work. There are many talented players in Thailand. I’ve played against many teams, many players from Thailand. It’s always tough opposition. So I think it’s down to hard work. That said, it starts at the grassroots level. You have to look at the academies, the coaches; when there are good and stable structures in place, then you can be successful, but it takes time. You have to be patient.

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT REAL MADRID AND MANCHESTER UNITED, BOTH OF WHOM SEEM TO BE FACING MANY CHALLENGES AT THE MOMENT? DO YOU THINK THEY CAN OVERCOME THEM?

Every team goes through challenges, even the biggest clubs with the best managers. They go through certain changes and all big teams go through difficult times. I wouldn’t say it’s a crisis but when you’ve been so successful and you have a couple of games where you don’t play well, people start talking about it. They’ll both be fine.

WHAT’S YOUR SECRET TO SUCCESS?

I don’t really have many secrets. My career, everything I’ve done in business has come from hard work. I saw that from a very young age with my parents. I saw them work hard. That instilled a set of values in me and I have tried to pass that on to my children. I want them to see that even though I have had a long career in football, I’m still working very hard. To be successful is to work hard, I always tell children that these great football players around the world playing in the [English] Premiere League and La Liga, or other leagues. They are not great because they are lucky. They work hard and it’s the same in business and in life in general. You want to be successful, you have to work hard. There’s a little bit of luck along the way, but you have to be dedicated. The biggest thing is you have to enjoy it. A smile on the face, and eye contact changes a person’s day.

AMERICAN-EGYPTIAN Professor Emeritus Dr Afaf Ibrahim Meleis has won this year’s Princess Srinagarindra Award for her contribution to nursing, healthcare and public health.

Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn presided at the October 17 award ceremony at the Grand Palace.

Throughout her career, Dr Meleis, 76, has advocated for vulnerable women and promoted nursing to address their and their families’ and communities’ needs.

Her passion for nursing and women’s health came from her mother, who was the first nurse from the Middle East to study in the United States.

Seeing her commitment to the development of nurses and strengthening of their impact on society, the young Afaf realised that nursing could make a significant difference.

The World Health Organisation says nurses and midwives account for nearly half of the global health workforce and play a critical role in health promotion, disease prevention and primary and community care.

“Ninety per cent of the nurses in the world are women,” Dr Meleis told The Nation. “If you empower nurses, you empower women. And we should be educating women anyway.

“Most recent research shows that, if you have nurses who graduated in a baccalaureate programme or were educated in the hospital sector, you decrease the hospitalisation period overall – you send patients home earlier. It also enhances team spirit when people have equal knowledge and abilities, and it affects the outcomes. Patients get better faster and they stay well longer.”

Nursing education is crucial for a healthy society. A UN High-Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth concluded that investments in education in the health and social sectors tripled the success of medical outcomes, global health security and economic growth.

“What we care about and develop knowledge about is different from other fields,” Meleis said. “Nursing is about the human being, not about illness. Nursing is about the human being’s experience and their responses to the illness. It’s the profession that focuses on the people, on the family and the community.

“The phenomena about which we want to develop knowledge are very particular to human beings’ reaction and relationship to the environment and how the environment influences how they cope and deal with the situation. Many communicable diseases have been conquered, so life expectancy is much longer, but lifestyles have changed, with less walking and fewer activities, leading to chronic illnesses. Nursing is not about curing disease – it’s about living in spite of disease.”

Since nurses do most of the work at a health clinic, they know the clinic best. They provide and manage personal care and treatment and, most importantly, they are part of their local community, sharing its strengths and vulnerabilities, making them key persons to meet the needs of the ill and their families.

Yet for all this, nurses are often treated as inferiors to doctors and those in other medical professions. They’re paid less, work more inflexible hours and enjoy fewer benefits.

“The gender difference is there because originally most physicians were men and most nurses were women,” Dr Meleis said. “But you can’t separate the oppression of the nurse from the oppression of women in general. They are very much interrelated.

“Nursing began with Florence Nightingale, and in the Islamic world with Rufayda al-Aslamiyyah. There was no education for nurses – they learned through apprenticeship. The gender gap comes from legend, from culture, from history – the same reasons nurses are in this position.”

She cited an international government commission that sought methods to improve the health of women around the world.

“The commission came up with a plan, saying, ‘If you improve nurse education, you improve women’s health and you improve the economy.’

“I see the changing face of nursing today. We will see nurses in parliament. We will see nurses sitting on hospital boards. We will see a nurse become minister of health. Nurses are making an impact.”

As she coaches future researchers, educators and clinicians, Meleis acknowledges that teaching and mentoring are both important – but believes mentoring is more sustainable.

“Mentoring involves really knowing the capacity of the person and how you can help them function up to the full capacity,” she said. “My mentoring goals are facilitating them, connecting them, continuing to the full support and really knowing them as an individual.”

Healthy, give-and-take mentor-mentee relationships have enabled her to steer Thais into the nursing doctoral programmes at Mahidol and Chiang Mai universities and the four-university curricular consortium programme.

That experience led Dr Meleis to co-found the International Network for Doctoral Education in Nursing, a non-profit professional association whose mission is to advance quality doctoral nursing education globally.

n The Princess Srinagarindra Award Foundation was established on October 21, 2000, in commemoration of the centenary of the birth of Her Royal Highness the late Princess Mother Srinagarindra Mahidol.

n The foundation enjoys royal patronage, with Her Royal Highness the late Princess Galyani Vadhana serving as president from 2000-2007 and Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn since 2008.

n The Princess Srinagarindra Award is conferred annually on a registered nurse, registered midwife or groups of either who have made significant contributions, through direct care, research, education or management, within or to their professions and contributed to the health and wellbeing of people around the world.