Sotheby’s Unveils Fancy Vivid Blue Diamond With Pre-Sale Estimate of $15M-$25M
October 13, 16
(IDEX Online) – Sotheby’s has unveiled an extremely rare Fancy Vivid Blue diamond ring by Cartier to go under the block next month and with a pre-sale estimate of $15 million-$25 million.
Called ‘The Sky Blue Diamond’, it weighs 8.01 carats, and will be one of the highlights of the Sotheby’s Geneva Jewellery sale on November 16.
The diamond has been graded Fancy Vivid Blue by the GIA – the highest possible color grading, awarded to no more than 1% of blue diamonds submitted to the GIA. It was also found to have excellent polish and to be of Type IIb, a rare category which represents less than 0.5% of all diamonds.
In the past two years, Sotheby’s has twice set a new world record auction price for a blue diamond, most recently with the Blue Moon of Josephine, the only diamond or gemstone in auction history to have exceeded $4 million per carat, selling for $48.5 million ($4,028,941 per carat) in November 2015.
Describing the diamond, David Bennett, Worldwide Chairman of Sotheby’s International Jewellery Division, said, “The Sky Blue Diamond is of a wonderfully clear celestial blue, presented in an extremely elegant square emerald cut – in my view, the most flattering of all the cuts for a colored diamond. This important gem will, I am sure, captivate all collectors of exceptional gemstones.”