Record Breaking 'De Beers Cullinan Blue' Fetches 58M

Today the step-cut fancy-vivid blue diamond weighing 15.10 carats sold for (450.9 million HKD) US$57.47 million, or over US$3.8 million per carat, at Sotheby's Hong Kong auction.

Although De Beers put a price tag of $48 million on the polished stone prior to the auction, the experts were closer to the hammer price. They believed that an exceptional blue stone of this quality could achieve a record price in the region of US$4 million per carat, which was slightly above the actual price.

The diamond has been cut from an exceptional typeIIb 39.34 carat rough stone, discovered by Petra Diamonds at the Cullinan mine in April 2021 and sold in Antwerp to De Beers and Diacore, for US$40 million or over US$1 million per carat. The fancy vivid blue stone is internally flawless and the largest of its color to go under the hammer. To date, only five blue diamonds weighing more than 10 carats have come to auction, none of those exceeded 15 carats.