An exceptionally-rare blue diamond went below the hammer in Geneva late Tuesday, promoting for $21.5 million, Sotheby’s public sale home stated.
“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 forwards and backwards earlier than the diamond was finally offered to a personal US collector, whose identify was not given, for 17.9 million francs ($21.5 million), Sotheby’s stated.
The Mediterranean Blue, which is a brand-new blue diamond lately mined from the legendary Cullinan mines of South Africa, generated enormous pleasure throughout the diamond trade ever because it was first introduced in March, the public sale home stated.
Forward of its ultimate 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 value over $100 million.
“At the top of the rarity pyramid are blue diamonds,” Quig Bruning, head of jewels for Sotheby’s in North America, Europe and the Center East, stated 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 top blue diamonds we have sold”.
Tobias Kormind, head of Europe’s largest on-line diamond jeweller 77 Diamonds, was much less upbeat, describing the sale as “less dazzling than anticipated”.
“The diamond did exceed its $20 million estimate, suggesting there was meaningful interest,” he acknowledged.
“But broader uncertainty, including the ongoing US-China trade tensions, may have dampened bidder confidence and muted what could have been a more frenzied atmosphere.”
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
