Oppenheimer Blue Diamond Could Sell for $38 to $45 Million

Bloomberg reported that the largest fancy vivid blue diamond ever offered at auction is set to go on sale at Christie’s in Geneva on May 18. The gem is 14.62 carats and is called the Oppenheimer Blue after its previous owner, Sir Philip Oppenheimer. His family controlled major diamond miner De Beers for 80 years.
The Oppenheimer Blue is expected to sell for $38 to $45 million.
As quoted in the market news:

The sale of the Oppenheimer Blue will come on the heels of yet another potentially record-breaking sale, when a 9.54-carat blue diamond, once owned by the child star Shirley Temple, goes on sale at Sotheby’s in New York in April for $35 million. The Oppenheimer diamond, however, has the potential to break all existing records.
There’s the diamond’s size, which is more than a carat larger than the previous record; its rarity, given that less than .0001 percent of all diamonds mined are blue, according to Christie’s; and finally its provenance — Oppenheimer founded the London-based Central Selling Organisation, the De Beers-backed diamond cartel that maintained global prices for more than half a century.
“Achieving the strongest colours in traditional shapes, such as the 15-carat Oppenheimer Vivid Blue can only be achieved with a highly saturated intrinsic color of the rough diamond,” said Tom Moses, the executive vice president of the Gemological Institute of America, in a statement. “This blue diamond’s colour and clarity, combined with its traditional cutting style and provenance, is truly exceptional.”

Click here to read the full Bloomberg report.