International News

GENEVA, (MILLAT+APP/AFP): A rare blue diamond on Wednesday sold in
Geneva for just over $17 million, as Sotheby’s eyed total sales in excess of $100 million at the autumn jewel auctions.
The 8.01-carat “Sky Blue” diamond in a Cartier setting was snapped up
for $17.1 million (15.9 million euros), a hike of 33 percent on the $12.8 million it sold for in 2012, said the auction house’s international jewellery division director David Bennett.
Rival auction house Christie’s opened the season on Tuesday with 167
lots that sold for $97 million, beating its pre-auction estimate of $80 million.
The “Sky Blue” sale came amid feverish demand for coloured stones.
Sotheby’s had valued the ring at $15-25 million, well short of the
astonishing $57.54 million Christie’s fetched in May for the 14.62-carat
“Oppenheimer Blue”, which remains the world record.
Tobias Kormind, head of 77 Diamonds, Europe’s biggest online diamond
jewellery retailer, said interest in coloured stones remained strong.
“Given the rarity of blue diamonds of this size and quality which
have ever been unearthed, you’d expect every auction of this kind to be a dogfight,” Kormind said before the auction at the five-star Hotel Beau Rivage on Lake Geneva.