WORLD RECORD: Blue Moon diamond sells for US$4 million per carat
The Blue Moon diamond has become the first stone in history to fetch over US$4 million per carat – a new world record for price per carat for a blue diamond and in fact price per carat for any diamond ever mined.
The Blue Moon diamond has become the first stone in history to fetch over US$4 million per carat – a new world record for price per carat for a blue diamond and in fact price per carat for any diamond ever mined.
Today at Sotheby’s Geneva, this investor’s dream sold for a total US$48.26 million (AU$68.3 million). Diamond specialists Cora International bought the rough, uncut Blue Moon last year for a reported US$26 million.
Sotheby’s set the previous record for highest price for a blue diamond at auction when it sold the 9.75-carat Zoe Diamond for US$32.6 million in New York last year in November.
According to Sotheby’s, the diamond was bought by a private Hong Kong-based investor, property tycoon Joseph Lau, and has been renamed the Blue Moon of Josephine after his 7-year old daughter.
The sale comes the day after he spent $US28.5 million at rival auction house Christie’s to buy a rare 16.08-carat pink diamond — the largest of its kind to ever go under the hammer — which he renamed Sweet Josephine.
The magnificent 12.03-carat Internally Flawless, Fancy Vivid Blue diamond has gained a great deal of attention since its discovery at the Cullinan mine in South Africa in January last year. The cushion brilliant-cut diamond is an amazing, intense blue colour with no hint of grey which is normally the case with blue diamonds. In its rough, uncut form it was a wonder, which took 5 months to analyse with 30 different models created, before beginning the painstaking 3 month process of cutting the gem to reveal the incredible Vivid Blue colour we see today.
In terms of rarity, the GIA (Gemological Institute of America) has only ever graded 400 blue diamonds with a fraction of those obtaining the coveted (fancy) ‘Vivid’ blue classification.