Sky Blue Diamond Fetches Sky High Price

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Apr 7th 2010 at 8:02PM

A sky blue diamond fetched a sky high price at the Sotheby's auction in Hong Kong this week. The 5.16 carat blue diamond auctioned off at the Hong Kong Magnificent Jewels and Jadeite Spring Sale on April 7 was estimated to bring in between $4.6 million and $5.8 million. It sold for HKD 49.94 million ($6.4 million) healthily above the high estimate. London's Moussaieff Jewelers has been identified as the buyer of the stone.

The rarer-than-rare pear-shaped fancy vivid blue diamond is internally flawless and was the first blue diamond from the De Beers Millennium Jewels Collection to appear at auction. The phenomenal collection was presented by De Beers in 2000 to celebrate the new millennium. At $1.25 million per carat, the De Beers Millennium Blue exceeds the price per carat of the famed Wittelsbach Diamond and nearly approached the record setting price of $1.35 million per carat for a 7.03 carat blue diamond and the 5 carat fancy intense pink diamond sold in Hong Kong last year for $2.1 million per carat.

Andrew Coxon,who personally selected the diamonds for the collection based on their beauty and rarity, says of the sale: "Impeccable provenance is worth millions to sophisticated diamond buyers. The timeless beauty of a De Beers selected Millennium Blue diamond will be remembered long after its near record-setting price has been forgotten. Personally, I wish I could have bought it back for De Beers, but professionally speaking, I sincerely congratulate the new owners and I am happy that the new owners appreciated this particular De Beers selected diamond."

Tags: blue diamond, blue diamonds, colored diamonds, de beers, diamonds, hong kong diamond auction

Filed under: Jewelry, Auctions

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Laurence Apr 12th 2010 11:41PM

As a gemologist of 35 years I notice several items.
1. I would not describe this stone as "Vivid". The Hope is vivid. This stone is very light in color and in saturation.
2. Looking through the stone one can see the wearer's hand through the culet - the smallest facet on a diamond. This indicates the stone was cut for maximun weight , but not for maximum optical performance.
3. It's nearly impossible to accurately grade color though a photograph, but this stone looks like it has a very gray base under this light blue color.

All in all a pretty stone but it's not the French Blue, and it's not the Hope.