Enormous Blue Diamond Sells for Nearly $44 Million
With the holiday gift-giving season right around the corner, it looks like one deep-pocketed shopper has a head start on the luxury jewelry crowd, paying $43.8 million for a magnificent blue diamond at Christie’s in Geneva Tuesday.
Known as “Bleu Royal,” the striking gem is the largest internally flawless fancy vivid blue diamond ever put up for auction and is among the rarest ever to be unearthed. “What makes Bleu Royal so rare and special is its size,” said Rahul Kadakia, Christie’s international head of jewelry. “At 17.6 carats, it’s the largest of its kind,”
Bleu Royal, a 17.6 carat internally flawless fancy vivid blue diamond, sold for nearly $44 million at Christie's against an estimate of $35 million.
Courtesy of Christie's
According to geologists, these natural wonders were formed in the hot layer between the earth’s crust and its core, at depths reaching 400 miles, over 500 million years ago. Chances are, if you own a blue diamond, you are in possession of something that is one billion years old.
The diamonds develop their brilliant blue color from the mineral boron, which is found in the ocean. “This is a true miracle of nature,” Kadakia said.
Bleu Royal was part of an important private collection for 50 years. This was the first time the stone, set in a ring, was presented at auction.
Fancy vivid blue diamonds weighing more than 10 carats are exceptionally rare. Since Christie’s was founded in 1766, only three such stones have appeared for sale – all in the last 13 years. When an extremely rare 14.6-carat gem known as “The Oppenheimer Blue”, came on the market in 2016 it sold for a world-record $57.5 million at Christie’s.
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