Rare blue diamond sells for record $9.5 million. A perfect bright blue diamond weighing 7.03 carats sold Tuesday for a record 10.5 million Swiss francs, the highest price remunerated per carat for any jewel at auction. The earlier record price for a fancy vivid blue diamond was $7.9 million, counting commission, for a stone weighing 6.04 carats at sale in Hong Kong in October 2007
The rectangular fashioned blue stone, the rarest to go into the global market this year, went to an unidentified purchaser bidding. The final price includes a commission paid by the buyer to the auction house. The stone sets a record price per carat for any gemstone sold at auction of $1,349,752. It was the showpiece of its semi-annual sale in Geneva. This is already a new world record price for a fancy vivid blue diamond and a new world record per carat for any jewel.
It was put up for sale by London-listed Petra Diamonds, which extracted it last year from the historic Cullinan mine in South Africa, the world's most regular supplier of blue diamonds of size and quality. Blue are the rarest of the diamond family after reds. The new owner will have the right to name the stone, which is mounted in a platinum ring. The pre-sale catalog estimate was 6.8 million to 10 million francs, excluding commission. The hammer price excluding commission was 9.3 million francs.
The sale fetched a total of 39.5 million Swiss francs ($35.7 million) for 266 lots which found new owners, while another 80 pieces were stranded on the block. Fresh stones to the market, including coloured diamonds, fetched good prices, the Briton said.
The rectangular fashioned blue stone, the rarest to go into the global market this year, went to an unidentified purchaser bidding. The final price includes a commission paid by the buyer to the auction house. The stone sets a record price per carat for any gemstone sold at auction of $1,349,752. It was the showpiece of its semi-annual sale in Geneva. This is already a new world record price for a fancy vivid blue diamond and a new world record per carat for any jewel.
It was put up for sale by London-listed Petra Diamonds, which extracted it last year from the historic Cullinan mine in South Africa, the world's most regular supplier of blue diamonds of size and quality. Blue are the rarest of the diamond family after reds. The new owner will have the right to name the stone, which is mounted in a platinum ring. The pre-sale catalog estimate was 6.8 million to 10 million francs, excluding commission. The hammer price excluding commission was 9.3 million francs.
The sale fetched a total of 39.5 million Swiss francs ($35.7 million) for 266 lots which found new owners, while another 80 pieces were stranded on the block. Fresh stones to the market, including coloured diamonds, fetched good prices, the Briton said.
