Blue Diamond Fetches A Lot Of Green —Almost Breaks World Record

The largest vivid blue diamond ever to appear at auction has just sold, and you might need to pick your jaw off the floor after hearing the price. The gem, known as the De Beers Cullinan Blue, sold in only a matter of minutes at auction —with the winning bidder dropping a near record-breaking $57.5 million for the precious stone.

In the eight-minute auction between 4 diamond aficionados, the stone flew past the auction house's estimated selling price of $48 million. The gem nearly bested the world record set by the Oppenheimer Blue diamond, which sold for $57,541,779 in 2016.

The gem was discovered in April 2021, at Cullinan Mine in South Africa. The mine is one of the very few sources in the world for extremely rare blue diamonds, according to Sotheby’s.

The 15.10-carat step-cut diamond is internally flawless and the largest of its kind to be graded by the Gemological Institute of America. Only five examples over 10-carats have come to auction, and none have ever exceeded 15 carats.

The high price lends itself to the exceptional rarity of blue diamonds. These scarce gems make up less than 0.02 percent of mined diamonds worldwide. KGK Group reports that finding such a precious gem in a mine is a 1 in 10,000 chance.

According to QZ, a true diamond is made of pure carbon and is colorless. When a diamond has color, like the De Beers Cullinan Blue or the Fuchsia Rose pink diamond, it is the result of impurities.

For blue diamonds, the color is the result of the chemical element boron, which becomes trapped in the crystal structure. While a diamond having hints of blue is rare, having a vivid hue like that found in The De Beers Cullinan Blue is incredibly rare.

“This largest fancy vivid blue diamond is also graded internally flawless by the Gemological Institute of America,” says Quig Bruning, head of jewels at Sotheby’s Americas. “The degree of its color saturation is unheard of.”

He continued, “Hong Kong has always been one of our central hubs of jewelry; most of our fancy colored diamonds were sold in Asia."

Source: QZ, Forbes

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