Cullinan Blue Makes Record Price

A blue diamond produced from the Cullinan mine sold for a record price at Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels auction in Geneva. Petra Diamonds, the mine owner, announced that the piece sold for $9,488,754m, or $1,349,752 per carat, establishing a new record price per carat for any gemstone sold at auction and the highest price for a fancy vivid blue diamond sold at auction.

The sale price surpassed the world record price per carat achieved for any gemstone at auction, which was formerly held by a 3.73 carat, fancy vivid blue pear-shaped diamond which sold for $1,328,444 per carat at a Sotheby’s auction in May 2008. It also surpasses the world record for a fancy vivid blue diamond sold at auction, which was formerly held by a 6.04 carat, fancy vivid blue diamond ring which sold for $7,981,835 at a Sotheby’s auction in October 2007.

The fancy vivid blue, internally flawless, cushion-shaped diamond, which weighs 7.03 carats, was cut from a 26.58 carat rough discovered in 2008 at the Cullinan diamond mine in South Africa, the world’s most consistently reliable source of blue diamonds. The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) has graded the stone as fancy vivid blue in color and internally flawless in clarity, the highest possible grading for a blue diamond.