Blue diamonds are considered the rarest and most desirable on the market. A particularly large one sold for millions at Sotheby’s on Thursday, scraping just under the surface of its low estimate of $26 million.
On Thursday, the auction house offered The Infinite Blue diamond in a single lot auction at its Hong Kong location. As the luxury highlight of the Autumn Marquee sales series, the 11.28 carat fancy vivid blue diamond was sold mounted on a diamond ring that surrounded the massive stone with brilliant-cut pink diamonds. It fetched $25.3 million at auction, the third highest price ever achieved for a blue diamond in Asia.
The diamond was “designed and cut with the inclusion of the number eight”, according to Sotheby’s literature. This feature is considered a symbol of prosperity in Asia. Its fancy vivid blue colour grading by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) is the highest possible colour grading awarded to no more than one per cent of blue diamonds examined by the company. The experts also found it to have an “excellent cut” and to be of Type IIb quality. The rare category represents less than 0.5 per cent of all diamonds.
A closer look at the stone reveals its radiant-cut design. It is a “more modern cut that combines the outline, proportions and crown faceting of a classic emerald cut, but adds the triangular and kite facets of the brilliant cut on the pavilion,” says GIA. A rectangular outline is common when presenting fancy colour diamonds face up. With the Infinite Blue, the pavilion facets draw the viewer into the sparkling blue colour.
Modern discoveries of a blue diamond are incredibly rare. In fact, the only mine that has produced blue stones with any regularity in recent times is the Cullinan mine in South Africa. While its supply has reportedly declined over the past decade, the site has produced three fancy vivid blue diamonds in the past decade. These include the Blue Moon of Josephine, which weighed 12.03 carats and sold for $48.5 million in 2015; the Oppenheimer Blue, which weighed 14.62 carats and sold for $57.5 million in 2016; and most recently, the De Beers Blue, which weighed 15.1 carats – the largest of its kind to ever appear at auction – and sold for $57.5 million in 2022.
“The Infinite Blue is one of the most beautiful diamonds I have seen in my 40 years in the diamond industry – it is wonderful to see such wonders of nature continue to excite the world of fine jewellery,” said Paul Rowley, De Beers Executive Vice President, in a statement. Wenhao Yu, head of jewellery and watch sales at Sotheby’s Asia, says: “It is an honour to have been entrusted with the opportunity to offer a diamond of such breathtaking beauty, the price of which testifies to the resilient demand for top-quality coloured diamonds among global collectors.
