DeBeers Strikes Out on Exceptional Blue Collection Sales at Latest Auction – May Indicate Drop in Demand for Blue Stones

De Beers had two more strikeouts with its Exceptional Blue Collection recovered in Petra’s South African Cullinan mine, this last Dec. 7 - perhaps a harbinger of waning demand in the colored diamond auction market.

The 3.24 ct. De Beers Exceptional Blue is the second highly publicized colored diamond to be withdrawn prior to auction in recent months. Similarly, the 2.08 ct. Exceptional Blue from the same collection didn’t find a buyer at the Sotheby’s New York auction. It had a $1.2 million–$1.5 million estimate.
This continues the trend started with the first diamond from that collection, the De Beers Exceptional Blue weighing in at 5.53 ct., not meeting its $11 million–$15 million estimate during the Sotheby’s sale in Geneva on Nov. 9 and remaining unsold.

A Sotheby’s statement said that the recent events do not “detract from the rarity of the De Beers Exceptional Blue Collection, and we are very much looking forward to presenting the five remaining exquisite gems in the New Year.”