A fancy vivid blue, internally flawless, cushion-shaped diamond weighing 7.03 carats sold for a record US$9,488,754 at Sotheby’s ‘Magnificent Jewels’ auction in Geneva this month.
The diamond, which had a pre-sale estimate price of US$5.8-8.5 million, was cut from a 26.58 carat rough discovered at Petra Diamonds’ Cullinan diamond mine last year.
Its US$9,488,754 sale price is the highest paid for a fancy vivid blue diamond at auction and the record price per carat (US$1,349,752) for any gemstone sold at auction.
The diamond has been named the ‘Star of Josephine’ by its buyer Joseph Lau Luen-Hung Lau, a real estate investor who owns a 71 percent stake in Chinese Estates Holdings and is ranked as Hong Kong’s fifth richest person by Forbes magazine.
Speaking after the auction, Sotheby’s International Jewellery Europe and Middle East chairman David Bennett said the ‘Magnificent Jewels’ auction series demonstrated “the continued demand for rare jewels of exceptional quality and provenance”.
“We are particularly thrilled with the price achieved for the diamond,” he said.
“It has also been very exciting and rewarding to work so closely with Petra Diamonds and to follow the progress of this remarkable gem over the last few months – from its emergence in its initial rough state, through its various stages of cutting and polishing, to its auction success.”
Other highlights at the ‘Magnificent Jewels’ auction series included the sale of a fancy intense pink pear shaped 5.29 carat diamond for US$2,048,508 and a marquise modified brilliant-cut fancy vivid yellow diamond weighing 18.13 carats which sold for US$1,065,152.