An exceptionally-rare blue diamond went underneath the hammer in Geneva, promoting for $21.5 million (R392 million), Sotheby’s public sale home mentioned.
“The Mediterranean Blue”, a elaborate vivid blue diamond weighing 10.3 carats with an estimated worth of $20 million, attracted an intense bidding battle.
Bidding started at 9 million Swiss francs ($10.8 million), with a fierce backwards and forwards earlier than the diamond was finally offered to a non-public US collector, whose identify was not given, for 17.9 million francs ($21.5 million), Sotheby’s mentioned.
Enormous pleasure
The Mediterranean Blue, which is a brand-new blue diamond lately mined from the legendary Cullinan mines of South Africa, generated enormous pleasure inside the diamond trade ever because it was first introduced in March, the public sale home mentioned.
Forward of its remaining exhibiting in Geneva on Tuesday, it was unveiled as a part of a Sotheby’s debut exhibition in Abu Dhabi final month, the place it was showcased alongside seven different “extraordinary” diamonds and gems collectively price over $100 million.
“On the high of the rarity pyramid are blue diamonds,” Quig Bruning, head of jewels for Sotheby’s in North America, Europe and the Center East, mentioned on the Abu Dhabi present.
After serving as auctioneer at Tuesday’s occasion, he hailed the gem as “undoubtedly the defining stone of the season”, saying in an announcement that it “ranks among the many high blue diamonds we now have offered”.
Tobias Kormind, head of Europe’s largest on-line diamond jeweller 77 Diamonds, was much less upbeat, describing the sale as “much less dazzling than anticipated”.
“The diamond did exceed its $20 million estimate, suggesting there was significant curiosity,” he acknowledged.
“However broader uncertainty, together with the continuing US-China commerce tensions, could have dampened bidder confidence and muted what may have been a extra frenzied environment.”
Are diamonds nonetheless a woman’s finest good friend?
Tell us by leaving a remark beneath, or ship a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 1
Subscribe to The South African web site’s newsletters and observe us on WhatsApp, Fb, X and Bluesky for the most recent information.
By Garrin Lambley © Agence France-Presse
