A new sales record within the fine jewelry world has been beaten this week at auction by Maison Christie’s in Geneva, Switzerland. The famous and mythical Oppenheimer Blue Diamond was sold for the first time last Wednesday, May 18. This brilliant and rare 14.62 carat blue diamond was estimated to be worth around 38.4 -45.5 million dollars. It took only 25 minutes of passionate offers between two anonymous enthusiasts, and the unique piece was finally sold for 57,54 million dollars. This is an exceptional and legendary sale.
Oppenheimer Blue Diamond
The previous world record for a jewel sold at auction was held by « Blue Moon of Josephine », a 12,03 carat diamond that was bought for 48.4 million dollars by a remarkable person from Hong Kong, Jospeh Lau, last November in Geneva.
The peculiarity of Oppenheimer Blue Diamond is its color. The bright blue and luminous stone is classified in category “Fancyvivid Blue”, which is the rarest color of diamonds. The gem of gems, this magnificent diamond with its rectangular shape is mounted on a ring, flanked by two smaller trapezoid cut diamonds. The diamond got its name from Sir Philip Oppenheimer (1911-1995), who had a wide influence on the diamond industry in the world for several years, through De Beers. This stone was extracted from a mine in South Africa, the same mine diamond “Cullinan”, the thickest diamond in the world, was discovered in 1905.
Unique Pink
The world of fine jewelry was honored this week, since the day before this legendary sale, another major auction house, Sotheby’s in London, England, also made a spectacular sale. In fact, on Tuesday afternoon, Sotheby’s sold an extremely rare 15.38 carat pear-shaped pink diamond, called ‘Unique Pink’ for 31.56 million dollars. This has also set an auction record. This stone was discovered about 5 years ago in a mine in South Africa, and was carved by Cora International in New York. ‘Unique Pink’ was also called ‘Fancy Vivid Pink’, a much sought-after color in the world of colored diamonds. This diamond was also mounted on a ring.
Colored diamonds are currently beating sales records at auctions. In an interview with AFP, Agence France Presse, Ehud Laniado, president of Cora International and happy seller of ‘Unique Pink’ said “we’re slowly seeing a market for diamonds going beyond jewelry and becoming an asset” and “Unique Pink and Blue Moon of Josephine will become even more valuable, and will be sold for much more”. He thinks the tendency will move to the big white stones as well.”
White diamonds also interest collectors and are an attractive market. On June 29, Sotheby’s will sell at public auction the largest rough diamond found 105 years ago, a 1109 carat stone, now estimated to be worth around 70 million dollars.
very unique diamonds…Awesome