Reporter | Huang Shan
Edit | Lou Shuqin
On the evening of April 27, auction house Sotheby's set a new global diamond auction in Hong Kong: a blue diamond from diamond miner and retailer De Beers sold for US$57.5 million (or HK$451 million, or 380 million yuan). Weighing 15.1 carats, this blue diamond is extremely rare and the largest blue diamond in auction history.
The original blue-colored diamond, which was estimated at $48 million, was eventually photographed by an anonymous buyer over the phone. According to Sotheby's Hong Kong, the entire auction process lasted only 8 minutes, with four potential buyers competing. According to Yu Wenhao, Chairman of Sotheby's Jewelry & Watches Asia, this blue diamond also became the third most expensive diamond in the history of auction.
The fancy color diamond, titled "De Beers, is derived from a rough blue diamond discovered in April 2021 at the Cullinan Mine in South Africa. De Beers polished the rough blue diamond into a 15.1 ct rectangular stepped cut Fancy Vivid blue diamond.
Sotheby's Asia chairman, Shiyun Huang, said in a statement that the blue diamond "may be the largest blue diamond I have ever seen in sotheby's 31-year career." We are very pleased to have been commissioned by DE BEERS De Beers and Diacore to auction this rare diamond and bring it to the international market." ”
The GIA Gemological Institute of America rated this blue diamond as a "Fancy Vivid grade," and only 1% of blue diamonds in this rating agency fall into this grade, which is very rare. According to the Gemological Institute of America, this blue diamond is "flawless inside" and has excellent polishing, belonging to Type IIb, and this texture is only less than 0.5% of the world's diamonds. This is also why the "Haoyu Blue" blue diamond is considered to have a very high collection value.
Sotheby's has also previously auctioned five blue-colored diamonds weighing more than 10 carats. Among them, in November 2015, Sotheby's Geneva sold a 12.03 ct cushion-shaped Fancy Vivid blue diamond for about $48.468 million, a blue diamond called "Josephine's Blue Moon" that set a world auction record for the price per carat of any diamond and gemstone at that time.
In November 2014, Sotheby's New York sold a 9.75 ct pear-shaped Fancy Vivid blue diamond for $32.645 million, a blue diamond called "The Zoe Diamond" that set a world auction record for Fancy Vivid blue diamonds at the time.
In April 2016, Sotheby's Hong Kong sold a 10.10 ct oval Fancy Vivid blue diamond for about $31.83 million, a blue diamond called "De Beers Millennium Gem 4" that set a new auction record for any jewelry in Asia.
It is worth noting that the "De Beers Millennium Treasure 4", like the record 15 carat "De Beers De Beers Haoyu Blue", is native to the Cullinan Diamond Mine in South Africa. The mine is rich in blue diamonds, including some of today's most prestigious diamonds, such as the 530-carat "Great Star of Africa."
The auction of this rare blue diamond also kicked off the 2022 Spring Auction of Sotheby's Jewelry. In fact, the world's major auction houses will gradually enter the spring auction stage of 2022, and there are also diamond lots worth looking forward to in other auction houses.
Christie's Christie's will auction a 205-carat canary yellow diamond at an auction in Geneva, Switzerland, on May 11. The yellow diamond lot is valued at $10.7 million and will be donated in full to the International Red Cross.
The yellow diamond was discovered by De Beers in South Africa in 1901 and weighs 375 carats. This 205 ct yellow diamond is already entering the auction market for the third time.