Blue Moon Diamond Sells for Record $48.5 Million

Rapaport reported that Sotheby’s has sold the 12.03-carat Blue Moon diamond for $48.5 million. The auction house claims that’s a world record for a diamond of any color.
As quoted in the press release:

The internally flawless diamond with “truly outstanding” color sold at a Sotheby’s sale in Geneva on November 11, breaking the previous record set when the auction house sold the 24.78-carat Graff Pink diamond for $46.2 million in the same city in 2010.
The Blue Moon was expected to go for between $35 million and $55 million. The eventual selling price represents a price per carat of more than $4 million, which Sotheby’s also described as an auction record – beating the $3.3 million-per-carat Zoe Diamond.
The stone was sold by New York jewelry company Cora International and the buyer is based in Hong Kong.

Ehud Laniado, chairman of Cora International, commented:

It took Cora experts five months to assess the rough stone originally unearthed from the Cullinan mine in South Africa. They then created 30 models of the diamond and cut each one differently until they achieved the perfect result. It took three more months to bring the Blue Moon diamond to its ultimate spectacular shape using advanced technology and sophisticated tools.
A jeweler has the chance to handle a unique diamond like this only once in a lifetime if they’re lucky and we are thrilled at Cora to have had this opportunity.

Click here to read the full Rapaport report.