Editor’s Note
This article reports on the record-breaking auction of a 12-carat blue diamond in Switzerland, highlighting the significant price per carat and the international interest in high-value gemstones.
(Seoul=Yonhap News) Reporter Kwon Soo-hyun – A top-quality 12-carat blue diamond was sold at a Swiss auction for 48.6 million Swiss francs (48.4 million dollars, approximately 56 billion won) to a collector believed to be Chinese, setting a record price per carat.
According to reports from AP and AFP on the 11th (local time), auction house Sotheby’s announced that the 12.03-carat blue diamond, known as the ‘Blue Moon’, was sold for this price at a gem auction held in Geneva, Switzerland, that day.
Sotheby’s explained that this hammer price includes fees and represents the highest price per carat (4.05 million Swiss francs, approximately 4.7 billion won) in the history of gem auctions.
This diamond received the ‘Fancy Vivid’ grade, the highest rating for color and clarity among colored diamond grades. Its estimated hammer price was between 35 million and 55 million dollars.
Belonging to the larger side among Fancy Vivid grade diamonds, this diamond was cut and polished from a 29.6-carat blue diamond discovered in South Africa in January last year. It has a light blue color, a rectangular shape with rounded corners, and is set in a ring.
The person who acquired this diamond is known to be a collector living in Hong Kong. It has been suggested that this person might be the same Chinese ‘big spender’ who purchased a rare pink diamond the previous day.
The day before, at a Christie’s gem auction also held in Geneva, a Chinese collector living in Hong Kong won the bid for a 16.08-carat top-quality pink diamond for 28.7 million Swiss francs (approximately 33 billion won).
