A 5.5-carat triangular-cut diamond billed as the largest known fancy vivid blue-green diamond sold for more than 13.5 million Swiss francs ($17.3 million) at Christie’s Geneva jewelry auction on Wednesday. Christie’s described the price as a record for a stone of its kind at auction.
The “Ocean Dream,” unearthed in Central Africa in the 1990s, soared past its presale estimate of 7 million to 10 million francs (about $9 million to $13 million). Bidding lasted approximately 20 minutes, “a sign that interest was high,” said Rahul Kadakia, president of Christie’s Asia Pacific. An unidentified private client was the buyer.
The sale price was more than double the roughly $8.5 million the gem fetched at Christie’s in 2014. The diamond was featured in the Smithsonian’s “Splendour of Diamonds” exhibition in 2003.
“A stellar result worthy of the world’s rarest blue-green diamond,” said Tobias Kormind, managing director of online jeweler 77 Diamonds, in a statement.
The day before, a 6-carat fancy vivid blue diamond from South Africa’s famed Cullinan mine failed to find a buyer at a Sotheby’s auction in Geneva. The rare stone carried a presale estimate of 7.2 million to 9.6 million francs ($9.2 million to $12.3 million). “Although the diamond didn’t find a buyer during the auction, we are now in conversations with several interested parties and are confident that it will find a new home soon,” Sotheby’s said.
Both Christie’s and Sotheby’s said collectors are increasingly drawn to rare colored diamonds, which make up only a fraction of all diamonds mined worldwide.