9.75-Carat Blue Diamond Fetches World Auction Record $32.6 Million

A 9.75-carat fancy vivid blue diamond from the collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon set two world auction records Thursday when it sold for more than $32.6 million Sotheby’s New York. 

The price, smashing its high estimate of $15 million, set a world auction record for any blue diamond; and set a world auction record for price-per-carat for any diamond, at more than $3.3 million per carat.

Seven bidders competed for 20 minutes for the pear-shaped diamond, Sotheby’s said. It ultimately sold to a Hong Kong private collector who named it “The Zoe Diamond.”

The previous auction record for any blue diamond was $24.3 million, set by the Wittelsbach Diamond at Christie’s London in December 2008. The previous per-carat auction record for any diamond was nearly $2.4 million, set by a 14.82 carat fancy vivid orange diamond at Christie’s in Geneva in November 2013.

“From the moment I saw this diamond, I knew that it would be one of the most important stones that I will ever have the privilege of presenting at auction,” said Gary Schuler, head of Sotheby’s Jewelry Department in New York. “Mrs. Mellon’s diamond absolutely deserves the place in the record books that it achieved tonight.”

The diamond was the top lot on the first day of a two-day sale of “Property from the Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon: Jewels & Objects of Vertu.” Other jewelry pieces in the sale, which resumes today (Friday), include Verdura, Schlumberger and Givenchy, Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels and Black Starr & Frost. 

Sotheby’s New York auctions of the Mellon Collection continue through Sunday.

Please join me on the Jewelry News Network Facebook Page, on Twitter @JewelryNewsNet and on the Forbes website.

A Big Pink and a Big Blue Diamond Fetched Big Bucks At Christie’s

Two fancy colored diamonds were the top sellers at Christie’s New York Magnificent Jewels sale Tuesday. Meanwhile, the diamond engagement ring that Kris Humphries gave to Kim Kardashian at the same sale made lots of noise but ended up only having the 12th highest sale price at $749,000.

The top lots among the 389 offered were:

* An 8.77-carat rectangular-cut fancy intense pink VVS1 diamond that sold for more than $6.3 million, or $721,200 per carat (top photo). The buyer was Moussaieff Jewellers, a luxury retail jeweler with stores in London and Geneva.

* A 3.81-carat rectangular-cut fancy vivid blue VS1 diamond that sold for nearly $4 million, or more than $1 million per carat (pictured above). The buyer requested anonymity.

The other top lots are as follows:

* A 25.30-carat rectangular-cut D color VVS1 diamond that sold for more than $3.1 million.

* An 18.28-carat cushion-cut D color VVS2 diamond that sold for more than $2 million.

* A 15.88-carat cushion-cut Kashmir sapphire that sold for more than $1.8 million.

* A 10.75-carat rectangular-cut D color internally flawless diamond that sold for nearly $1.4 million.

* A 17-carat rectangular-cut F color VS1 diamond ring that sold for more than $1.2 million. The ring was part of Diana Dollar Knowles Collection. Knowles, who died March 4 at the age of 95, was a noted San Francisco philanthropist and patron of the arts.

The auction at Christie’s Rockefeller Center headquarters took in more than $46.6 million with 75 percent of the items sold by lot and 85 percent sold by value.

However, the sale also notable for a number of big-ticket items that failed to sell. Among them:

* An 18k pink gold and platinum ring set with a 2.47-carat heart-shaped fancy purple-pink diamond and flanked on either side by a modified heart- shaped fancy intense blue diamond, weighing approximately 1.22 and 1.16 carats. Its high estimate was $1.55 million.

* A 37.20-carat modified pear-shaped fancy deep brown-yellow diamond mounted in 18k rose gold with a high estimate of $800,000.

* An 11.70-carat circular-cut diamond, with the shoulders set with baguette-cut diamonds, mounted in platinum that had a high estimate of $800,000.

Please join me on the Jewelry News Network Facebook Page, on Twitter @JewelryNewsNet and on the Forbes Website.

A Once in a ‘Blue Moon’ Diamond to Make a Public Appearance

Photo credit: Cora International/Tino Hammid

Sometimes my job is pretty good. For example, on Friday I had the opportunity of seeing what is considered to be one of the rarest blue diamonds on the planet up close. At least that's what the owners of the stone say.

Appropriately named the “Blue Moon” (as in “once in a blue moon”), the diamond will make its first and likely only public appearance at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County in an exhibition from September 13 – January 6. 

Blue diamonds are rare enough but what separates this diamond from so many of its peers are its color saturation and shade, its clarity and its size, said Suzette Gomes, CEO of Cora International, a diamonds and jewels manufacturer known for working with statement diamonds. . The 12-carat cushion-cut diamond has been given a color grading of “fancy vivid” with an “internally flawless” clarity grading from the Gemological Institute of America. 

In addition, its color was further tested under ultraviolet light by the Smithsonian Institution under the supervision of Jeffrey Post, curator of the National Gem and Mineral Collection. The trace element Boron within the carbon structure of the stone is responsible for the color of a blue diamond. Boron also produces unique phosphorescence red glow under ultraviolet light.

Under ultraviolet light testing the gem produced an orangey-red glow for 20 seconds, longer than most blue diamonds, showing that the blue in the Blue Moon diamond is true and saturated throughout the stone with no other colors—such as grey, which is common for blue diamonds, Gomes said. Also, blue diamonds are known to exhibit a blue-green glow under ultraviolet light.

“What’s exciting is that the phosphor is orange red. That for us was a big thing because it gives you the purity of the diamond,” Gomes said on the other side of a desk with the Blue Moon between us on a grey felt tray inside Cora’s office in New York. “Other blues also glow phosphor red but it doesn’t last as long.… This was orange red for 20 seconds.”

There is no one more excited about this gem than Gomes who has called the Blue Moon her career highlight and a privilege to work with. Few have spent more time with the gem as well. 

“The fact that you could buy it rough, plan it and cut it is special,” she said. “This is a billion years old and it’s going to be here long after we’re gone. That’s the beauty of diamonds.”

Another thing that makes this diamond interesting is that it was a recent discovery. The Blue Moon was produced from a 29.62-carat rough diamond unearthed at the Cullinan mine in South Africa in January. The mine is known for producing the most blue diamonds in the world but these gems still only accounts for 0.1 percent of its total diamond output, Gomes said. As mentioned earlier, its clarity and color makes the gem even rarer. 

Cora acquired the rough for approximately $26 million in February and went right to work, finishing the piece only three weeks ago. All of the testing results from the Smithsonian and GIA were not completed as of Friday. 

The fact that the origin of the diamond is known makes this special as well, Gomes said.

“A lot of time with diamonds you don’t know what the origin is,” she said. “Someone has a one-carat vivid blue that their grandmother had and nobody knows where it comes from.”

The Blue Moon in the Cora International office. Photo credit: Anthony DeMarco

Sitting flat on a pad under normal office lighting didn’t provide the best view of the diamond but its shade of blue is unmistakable. Unlike the Hope Diamond, which has a blue that is deep, dark and rich, the Blue Moon is closer to an aqua blue. Gomes refers to it as "ocean blue." The facets appear as if they are wavelets on water. Finally, it’s transparent. You can see clear through the diamond. So picture a lake with sunlight dancing on its rippled surface and that is the color of the Blue Moon.  

Gomes said the cushion cut makes it most ideal to be used as a brooch or a ring, although she would display it on a wall as art. 

Gomes refuses to discuss its value and will not compare it to other stones. But I can. The largest known fancy vivid, flawless diamond (one grade over the IF clarity grade the Blue Moon received) is a pear-shaped, 13.22-carat stone purchased by the Harry Winston luxury jewelry brand for $23.8 million at Christie’s Geneva in April. Renamed the “Winston Blue,” the nearly $1.8 million-per-carat price paid is a world record for a blue diamond.

Gomes said she would rather focus on getting the Blue Moon to L.A. for the exhibition at the Natural History Museum. 

“We just want to get through the exhibition in the hope that it raises its profile because they are not the level of the Smithsonian,” she said. “I want to help them. What they do is awesome and they always struggle for money. They need funding and this will raise their profile too so it’s good for everyone.”

Please join me on the Jewelry News Network Facebook Page, on Twitter @JewelryNewsNet and on the Forbes website.