A new sales record in high jewelry has been beaten this week at an auction held by the Maison Christie’s in Geneva, Switzerland. The famous and mythical Oppenheimer Blue Diamond had to be sold for the first time this Wednesday, May 18. This vivid and rare blue diamond, 14.62 carats, was estimated at between 38.4 and 45.5 million dollars. They just needed 25 minutes of deals between two amateurs who remained anonymous, so that this unique piece would finally find a buyer for $57.54 million. It is an exceptional and historic sale.
Oppenheimer Blue Diamond
The previous record belonged to «Blue Moon of Josephine»a diamond of 12.03 carats that had been bought $48.4 million by a Hong Kong notable, Joseph Lau, last November in Geneva.
The peculiarity of the Oppenheimer Blue Diamond is its color. The stone bright vivid blue is classified in the category «Fancyvivid Blue», what is the rarest color for monochromatic diamonds. The gem of gems, this magnificent diamond with its rectangular cut is set in a ring, flanked by two smaller trapezoid diamonds. This precious stone owes its name to the diamond cutter British Sir Philippe Oppenheimer (1911-1995) who had a great influence on the world diamond market for several years, through the company De Beers. This diamond has been mined in First mine in South Africathe same where «cullinan», The thickest diamond in the world was discovered in 1905.
Unique Pink
The world of high jewelry is celebrating this week, since on the eve of this historic sale, the other great auction house, Sotheby’s in London, Englandalso made a spectacular sale. On Tuesday afternoon in effect, Sotheby’s sold the thickest pear-cut living pink diamond for $31.56 million. A record also for a diamond of this color. It is a stone that was discovered about 5 years ago in a mine in South Africa and that had been rescued and carved by the International Choir Society in New York. L’Unique Pink has also been certified as “Fancyvivid Pink”, extremely sought after color in the universe of colored diamonds. It has a weight of 15.38 caratsand is also mounted on a ring.
The colored diamonds currently beat sales records at the time of the auctions. In an interview with AFP, Agence France Presse, Ehud Laniadothe president of the Cora International Society, the happy seller of L’Unique Pink, stated that ” Colored diamonds were attracting investment assets, with the same title as art” and that “This L’Unique Pink diamond and the Blue Moon of Josephine are still going to appreciate and will be resold more expensive. When you buy Picasso, you pay dearly for it, he added, but you know that you are going to resell it more expensive”. It is exactly the same phenomenon that is observed for colored diamonds.
Meanwhile the white diamonds also always have the interest of collectors and also remain in a market attractive. For proof, next June 29, Sotheby’swill sell at public auction the largest and roughest diamond found since 105 yearsa stone of 1109 caratsestimated for now between the $70 million.