Tycoon Joseph Lau bought this bauble for his youngest daughter, Josephine, age 7,
and promptly renamed the natural 12.03 caret diamond "The Blue Moon of Josephine."
Posted on 11/12/2015 12:51:43 AM PST by Swordmaker
Geneva (AFP) - An exceptional 12.03-carat diamond dubbed "Blue Moon" was sold in Geneva for a new world record of 48.6 million Swiss francs ($48.4 million) on Wednesday, auction house Sotheby's said.
The vivid diamond, described as flawless by experts, was bought by a private collector from Hong Kong.
The record-breaking sale comes a day after rival auction house Christie's sold a rare 16.08-carat pink diamond, the largest of its kind to ever appear at auction, for $28.5 million, narrowly beating pre-sale projections.
That was also won by an Asian buyer, who re-baptised it "Sweet Josephine".
David Bennett, head of Sotheby's international jewellery division, said the "Blue Moon" sale broke several records, making the gemstone "the most expensive diamond, regardless of colour, and the most expensive jewel ever sold at auction".
The rock, set in a ring, went under the hammer for 43.2 million Swiss francs, with the final sale price amounting to 48.6 million Swiss francs including fees.
It also fetched the highest-ever price per carat, he said, with the buyer shelling out 4.02 million Swiss francs per carat.
The previous world record for a jewel sold at auction was held by the 24.78-carat "Graff Pink" diamond, which was sold by Southeby's for $46.2 million in November 2010.
Two bidders were locked in a telephone bidding war for eight minutes before the hammer went down, with the precious jewel staying within its pre-sale estimate of $35-55 million.
The diamond was discovered in South Africa in January last year and was the largest cushion-shaped blue stone in the fancy vivid category to ever appear at auction.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
good lord its a rock....free money has thrown asset prices completely out of whack
This must be poor writing. What are the odds that two different Asian buyers would buy two different multi-million dollar diamonds and both diamonds would be dubbed Josephine?
he bought the damned thing for his 7 year old lol
Same Asian tycoon bought both for the same seven year old daughter. She must be mighty cute. . . Or he has some real problems.
Yeah, I only had $47.5 million dollars to spare this month, so I skipped the auction.
Blue moon, blue moon, blue moon
Dip-de-dip-de-dip
colored stones are often too dark, IMO.
on top of that, they don’t have
“fire-rainbow effect’, which is what you pay for
in a colorless diamond.
to each his own, I guess
Good toy for a 7-year-old - it’s hard to break.
What are the odds that two different Asian
coulld even pronounce Josephine
that be one pretty diamond
I don't know about this blue one, a couple of other sites had several photos of this stone that showed quite a bit of fire and color. I saw reds and greens and flashes of purples. If you want fire-rainbow effects, save the money and buy a moissanite. 2.47 times the fire of a diamond and almost as hard at 9.24 MOHs. . . And as clear as a D grade diamond. Still expensive for a colorless, but nowhere near the cost the controlled market forces diamonds to. You can buy a 10 caret Moissanite for $7500 while that would be millions in a diamond with less fire.
On the other hand, my ring I wear on my ring finger on my left hand is the rarest of the fancy color diamonds, a black diamond. . . And it's a 15.56 carat solitaire in a massive rose gold setting I designed. My girlfriend has a 6.5 carat black diamond solitaire with 28 champagne diamonds in yellow diamonds to complement mine. She has a 10 carat Moissanite solitaire ring that's her everyday ring. It's blinding in sunlight! I've got a larger black diamond I'm trying to think of an appropriate use for. . . I'm thinking a cane topper or a gear-shift knob or possibly a sword pommel. It's 91.86 carats and 1.125" in diameter and about 1.25" deep, way too big for a even a pendant.
Oops. . . Let me correct that: "My girlfriend has a 6.5 carat black diamond solitaire with 28 champagne diamonds in yellow diamonds gold to complement mine."
There, that's better.
I’m with you. I just thought “meh” when I saw it. Much prefer a beautiful colourless stone.
I thought it was overkill - but that's what she wanted
I said "Kath - this is a private Island home in Fiji, why would you want to do that"....she got so pissed she had the chopper pilot at the guest house take her to Tahiti for a shopping spree
Opulence, I has it...
Just to put it in perspective, many parents spend much more of their wealth on their children than he did, percentage wise.
LOL!
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