14-Carat Oppenheimer Blue Diamond Could Fetch $45 Million

The 14.62-carat “Oppenheimer Blue” will be the lead item in Christie’s Geneva Magnificent Jewels sale, May 18 at the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues. The auction house says it is “the largest and finest Fancy Vivid Blue diamond ever offered at auction.”

The rectangular-shaped gem has an estimate of $38 - $45 million, which falls within striking distance of the “Blue Moon of Josephine,” a 12.03-carat cushion-shaped Fancy Internally Flawless Vivid blue diamond that set a world auction record of $48.4 million in November, 2015.

The Oppenheimer Blue was previously owned by Sir Philip Oppenheimer, a member of the family that once controlled the De Beers Mining Company. He is credited with serving for 45 years as chairman of the Central Selling Organization, the sales cartel set up by De Beers to keep strict control over the diamond supply worldwide. Today he is remembered as the architect of creating stability in the international diamond chain and for his incomparable gem collection, which includes the Oppenheimer Blue. He died in 1995 at the age of 83.

“Sir Phillip could have had any diamond he wanted, but he chose this one, with its perfect hue, impeccable proportions and fabulous rectangular shape,” said François Curiel, chairman of Christie’s Asia Pacific and China.

The color of the Oppenheimer Blue was given the rare Fancy Vivid grade by the Gemological Institute of America, which issued the report on the stone. In blue diamonds, Fancy Vivid specifically describes those that are medium to dark in tone and strong to very strong in saturation. In a past GIA study of 462 blue diamonds, only 1 percent were Fancy Vivid.

“It is well known that extraordinary skill is required to extract the ‘best’ color from fancy colored diamonds,” Tom Moses, GIA executive VP. “Achieving the strongest colors in traditional shapes such as the 15 carat Oppenheimer Vivid Blue can only be achieved with a highly saturated intrinsic color of the rough diamond. This blue diamond’s color and clarity combined with its traditional cutting style and provenance is truly exceptional.” 

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$35 Million Estimate For 10-Carat De Beers Millennium Blue Diamond

A second statement blue diamond has appeared on the auction market a few months after a similar gem set an all-time auction record.

The “De Beers Millennium Jewel 4,” the largest oval-shaped Fancy Vivid Blue Diamond ever to appear at auction, will be the lead item at Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels & Jadeite sale on April 5 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. 

The rare 10.10-carat oval-shaped Internally Flawless Fancy Vivid Blue diamond has an estimate of $30 - $35 million.

The blue diamond, with the utilitarian name of “De Beers Millennium Jewel 4,” is offered for sale from an Asian private collection, Sotheby’s said.

While the estimate for this blue diamond is quite hefty, if achieved it will fall well short of the most expensive gem ever sold at auction. That honor goes to the “Blue Moon of Josephine,” a 12.03-carat cushion-shaped Fancy Internally Flawless Vivid blue diamond that set a world auction record of $48.4 million and a world record price-per-carat for any diamond or gemstone at just over $4 million. It was purchased November, 2015 at Sotheby’s Geneva sale by billionaire Hong Kong real estate investor Joseph Lau, the same person who paid a record $28.5 million for a 16.08-carat cushion shaped fancy vivid pink diamond at Christie’s Geneva sale a day earlier.

The De Beers Millennium Jewel 4 is the only oval-shaped stone among the 12 rare diamonds—eleven blue and one colorless—that form the De Beers Millennium Jewels collection, unveiled by the diamond mining giant in 2000 in celebration of the millennium. All of the gems were unearthed at the historic Cullinan Mine in South Africa, once owned by De Beers. Since their initial appearance at the Millennium Exhibition in 2000, only one of these diamonds has appeared on the open market.

Blue diamonds make up less than 0.1 percent of all diamonds recovered at the Cullinan mine (now owned by Petra Diamonds and renamed the Premiere Mine). These diamonds owe their color to impurities of boron during the stone’s formation, and many are naturally modified with a grey secondary tone, or an uneven saturation with areas of colorless windowing. 

“Blue diamonds of any intensity of color are amongst the rarest of all gems. Highly saturated blue diamonds over ten carats combined with an Internally Flawless clarity grade are extremely rare,” said Tom Moses, executive VP and chief research and laboratory officer of the Gemological Institute of America, which issued the grading report on the gem. “There have been fewer and fewer new rough diamonds discovered over the last decade that produce this color. Most of the recent diamonds offered for sale in this category are coming from private collections—not diamond mines.” 

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Harry Winston Buys World’s Largest Flawless Vivid Blue Diamond For $23.8M and Names it ‘The Winston Blue’

Meet “The Winston Blue,” considered the world’s largest known flawless vivid blue diamond. Harry Winston purchased the sparkling gem for nearly $23.8 million at Christie’s Geneva Magnificent Jewels sale. At nearly $1,800 per carat, the price per carat paid for the 13.22-carat stone represents a world record for a blue diamond.

It is the second major diamond purchase by Harry Winston since it was acquired by the Swatch Group, one of the world’s largest watch and jewelry conglomerates. Last year, Harry Winston purchased a 101.73-carat colorless diamond for a world record $26.7 million ($254,400 per carat), at Christie’s Geneva jewelry auction.

The Winston Blue was easily the top lot of Wednesday’s auction, which realized more than $154.1 million, with 85 percent sold by lot and 94 percent by value. It achieved the highest total ever for a Jewelry sale in auction history, beating the Christie’s New York December 2013 Elizabeth Taylor jewelry sale, which totaled $137.2 million over a two-day period. The other top lots included:

* Belle Epoque diamond Devant-de-Corsage brooch, by Cartier that sold for more than $17.5 million. 

* A 75.97-carat pear-shaped D color, flawless diamond that sold for more than $14.4 million.

* A 76.51-carat cut-cornered square-cut light pink, VVS1 diamond necklace for $10 million, a world auction record for a light pink diamond. by Leviev $130,712 per carat. 

* The “Ocean Dream,” A 5.50-carat triangular-cut fancy vivid blue-green, SI1 diamond that sold for more than $8.6 million, a world auction record for a blue-green diamond.

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Rare 7.59-Carat Round Fancy Vivid Blue Diamond to be Auctioned at Sotheby’s Hong Kong

The Premier Blue Photo credit: AFP/Getty

Sotheby’s Hong Kong is offering the Premier Blue, a 7.59-carat round fancy vivid blue diamond, as one of the top lots in its Magnificent Jewels and Jadeite Autumn Sale scheduled for October 7 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. 

This brilliant-cut internally flawless gem is the largest round fancy vivid blue diamond ever graded by the Gemological Institute of America. The estimate is available upon request. However, a 6.01-carat fancy vivid blue diamond sold in 2011 at Sotheby's Hong Kong for more than $1.68 million, an auction record for the per-carat price of a fancy vivid blue diamond. The Premier Blue is expected to sell for far more, according to reports.

Sotheby’s said the round brilliant cut is rarely used in colored diamonds due to the high waste involved in the cutting process. “No significant round fancy vivid blue diamond has ever appeared at auction worldwide thus making the Premier Blue a rare and exceptional gem,” the auction house said.

The Premier Blue will be previewed throughout Asia as well as in Geneva, London, New York and Doha at before the auction in Hong Kong.

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Bulgari Blue Diamond Fetches $15.7M at Auction

The Bulgari Blue Diamond, the largest triangular-shaped fancy vivid blue diamond ever to appear at auction, sold for $15.7 million—making it the top jewel sold at auction thus far in 2010. The gem, mounted as a two-stone diamond ring designed in the 1970s by the House of Bulgari in Rome, was the star lot of Christie’s “Jewels: The New York Sale” on October 20.

After five minutes of bidding, the hammer fell to an unidentified Asian collector who paid a world record price per carat for a blue diamond.

“The bidding opened with an $8 million bid from a client on the phone with Vickie Sek, Christie’s head of Jewelry for Asia,” said François Curiel, president of Christie’s Asia and international head of Jewelry at Christie’s. “It swiftly turned into a one-on-one bidding war with a European collector on the phone with Rahul Kadakia, head of Jewelry for Christie’s Americas. The pair traded bids back and forth in $500,000 increments until the final bid was reached.”

The ring features a triangular-shaped colorless diamond of 9.87 cts. paired with a triangular-shaped fancy vivid blue diamond of 10.95 cts. Fancy vivid blue diamonds are among the rarest and most sought-after of colored diamonds, as only one in about 10 million possess a color pure enough to qualify as “fancy vivid.” Due to their rarity and increasingly limited supply, demand has rapidly driven prices to great heights, with particular strength seen for those stones weighing more than 10 cts., Christies said. Large, natural blue diamonds, in particular those possessing the coveted vivid blue tone and saturation, have become highly prized on the international market.

The ring was offered for sale by a private European collector who has kept the ring in his family for almost 40 years. He had originally purchased the ring at the Bulgari flagship boutique on Via dei Condotti in Rome in 1972, as a gift for his wife in celebration of the birth of their first child, a baby boy. The final sale price in 1972 was about $1 million.

The Bulgari Blue provided a dramatic finish to the 447-lot auction and brought the collective total to $52.5 million. Earlier in the day, Christie’s achieved an impressive 100 percent sell-through rate for Jeweled Elegance: The Eye of A Distinguished Collector, a single-owner collection of signed jewels from celebrated designers, including Cartier, David Webb, Van Cleef & Arpels and Harry Winston. The entire morning session of the October 20 auction was devoted to this assemblage of more than 160 individual pieces, which raised $11.4 million, far above its pre-sale high estimate.