Cullinan Dream Sells for $25.4 Million at Christie's

(IDEX Online News) – Auction house Christie’s has sold the latest statement blue diamond – the 24.18-carat Fancy Intense “Cullinan Dream” – for $25.4 million.

The cut-cornered rectangular mixed-cut gem, set on a platinum ring flanked with classic baguette-cut diamonds was the top item at the Christie’s New York Magnificent Jewels sale. The sale price was toward the low end of the $23-29 million pre-sale estimate.

"For $25.4m, the buyer of the 24.18 carat Fancy Intense blue Cullinan Dream diamond might just have bagged a bargain,” said 77Diamonds.com managing director Tobias Kormind. “Blue diamonds are rarer than pink diamonds, but when a comparable diamond, a 24-carat Intense pink diamond, the Graff Pink, sold in November 2010, it fetched a handsome $46.2 million. The price is also much lower than the $3.9 million per carat achieved by the Oppenheimer Blue in May 2016, which at $57.5 million became the most expensive diamond ever sold at auction, and the staggering $4.02 million per carat achieved by the Blue Moon of Josephine in November 2015. Investor appetite for large and rare coloured diamonds remains buoyant."

The Cullinan Dream was the top item among the 260 lots available at Christie’s New York sale, which realized more than $42.2 million. Four other lots sold for more than $1 million. These included a 52.76-carat oval brilliant-cut diamond that sold for $2.045 million, a pair of cushion brilliant-cut diamond earrings weighing approximately 21.21 and 20.80 carats that sold for $1.325 million, a 16.12-carat oval-cut emerald that sold for $1.265 million and a 51.06-carat cut-cornered modified brilliant-cut fancy intense yellow diamond, which sold for $1.625 million.