A rare, two-stone ring set a new record price per carat for a blue diamond at auction when it sold for $15.7 million to an Asian collector.

The ring features a 9.87 carat colorless triangular-shaped diamond paired with a triangular 10.95 carat “Fancy Vivid” blue diamond, the largest such blue diamond of this cut ever offered at auction.

The jewel had been bought in Rome in 1972 for $1 million, which is the equivalent of about $5 million today, Christie’s auction house said.

A rare 5.16-carat blue diamond sold at auction for $6.4 million in Hong Kong on Wednesday, confirming Asia’s fast-growing taste for the precious stone.

London’s famed Moussaieff Jewellers paid more than the $5.9 million expected price tag for the pear-shaped stone, the first blue diamond from the celebrated De Beers Millennium Jewels Collection to appear at auction.

The De Beers Millennium Collection, displayed in London’s Millennium Dome in 2000, comprised 12 rare gems and took decades to assemble.

“It’s a bargain and I got it at this price because everyone was asleep,” Moussaieff said in an interview.

Her London-based boutique will change the gem’s mounting and offer the stone “to discerning clients, possibly in Asia,” she said.

The Hong Kong collector who bought Cullinan’s blue diamond has named it the ‘Star of Josephine’, Petra Diamonds said on Tuesday.

The flawless cushion shaped diamond, weighing 7.03 carats was purchased by Hong Kong collector Joseph Lau Luen-Hung on 12 May.

“Mr Lau bought the diamond for HK$74-million (US$9.48-million) and he has already exercised his right to name the diamond, which is now known as ‘Star of Josephine’,” said the company.

A flawless blue diamond weighing 7.03 carats has sold for a record 10.5 million Swiss francs ($9.49 million), the highest price paid per carat for any gemstone at auction, Sotheby’s said.

The rectangular-shaped blue stone, mounted on a platinum ring, is the rarest to enter the international market this year.

The anonymous phone bidder, who won after a 15-minute war, has yet to name the gem.

This extraordinary blue-gray diamond (on the picture above) was given to Infanta Margarita Teresa by her father King Philip IV of Spain, on her engagement to her uncle Leopold I of Austria-one of the most historic events in European history.
This girl was the portrayed in Las Meninas), the most famous painting by Spaniard Diego Velazquez. In a political move, she was engaged to Leopold I, who later became the Holy Roman Emperor, and that was when her father gave his 13-year-old daughter the diamond as part of the dowry. Sadly she died aged only 21, having given birth to four child, of which only one survived beyond childhood.

It is believed that the Wittelsbach diamond originated from the Indian diamond mines, was passed into the Austrian and then Bavarian crown jewels, and was finally sold into private hands in 1931. It makes part of the current private collection since 1964.

According to a Christie’s spokesman said “no examples” of coloured diamonds comparable to the Wittelsbach have been put up in an auction before.
“Blue diamonds are rare and to offer a blue diamond of this size, quality, shape and provenance is truly extraordinary.” Actually, the nearest comparable coloured diamond sold at Christie’s was one just a third of the size, a 13.39 carat intense blue diamond that fetched £5.5 million ($8.9 million) in May.

In addition, “the appearance of a large blue diamond, among the rarest of colours, with a history that can be traced back to the 17th century and 300 years of royal connections will surely be a thrilling occasion for all collectors of exceedingly rare jewels and works of art.”

The Wittelsbach diamond is the star lot in Christie’s auction Jewels: According to estimates, the 35.56-carat gem, almost once inch in width, with a 300-year-old royal history, could raise up to 10million pounds ($16 million) when it goes under the hammer on December 10.

It is on public display at the auction house in King Street, St James’s, London, on Friday 5 December and from Sunday 7 to Tuesday 9 December.

A blue diamond of 13.39 cts. became the most important color diamond sold at auction anywhere in the world during the past 10 years, according to Christie’s.

Offered at auction house’s in Geneva location on Wednesday, it achieved a world record price of $8.9 million.

“This impressive result is due to the scarcity of colored diamonds on the market, and to the great demand from collectors around the world for exceptional artworks and jewels that is currently dominating the auction world,” said François Curiel, chairman of Christie’s Europe. Via JCK