Katrina Manson
Katrina Manson is a British journalist, photographer and author who has reported from west Africa for the past four years, for Reuters and others, including The Independent and BBC online. She is...
Katrina Manson's Notebook:
Big blue sparkler breaks records
In case you were thinking about buying it, the big blue diamond has already sold — for a record price — higher than the upper estimate even.
The buyer, who wishes to remain anonymous, bid a winning $9,488,754 following a 15-minute telephone bid standoff between the two highest bidders late on Tuesday. The auction was conducted by Sotheby's in Geneva.
Before the auction, the owners of the diamond, Petra Diamonds, had estimated the diamond would fetch from $5.8 to $8.5 million.
The price for the stone broke records — the highest price for a fancy vivid blue diamond sold at auction and the record price per carat for any gemstone sold at auction, at $1,349,752 per carat, beating the previous highest record of $1.33 million for a smaller 3.73-carat blue diamond that fetched $4.6 million a year ago.
“We are absolutely thrilled with the price achieved for this exceptional stone, which ranks as the highest price ever established for a fancy vivid blue diamond,” said David Bennett, Chairman, Europe & the Middle East, Sotheby’s International Jewellery department.
The auction included several other glittering pieces of jewelry which fetched a total of $35.7 million for 266 lots which found new owners. A further 80 pieces went unsold.
Sotheby’s said the winning bidder has not yet exercised the privilege to name the stone.
Speculation about the nationality of the buyer is rife. Some think it might have been sold to a Chinese buyer, a market diamond sellers are increasingly looking to tap. The diamond was exhibited not only in London, New York and Geneva, but also in Hong Kong.
“Russians tend to brag and show wealth; Chinese don’t because they’re much more subtle,” said one fine art commentator. “That’s one of the rarest diamonds in the world — it’s not really about a diamond, it’s about possessing a fortune and power.”
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