Editor’s Note
A vivid blue diamond named the “Mellon Blue” has sold for over $25 million at auction in Geneva, setting a new benchmark for gemstones of exceptional purity.
The “Mellon Blue,” a vivid blue diamond weighing 9.51 carats and set on a ring, was sold for over $25 million on Tuesday in Geneva, a price in line with initial estimates for a stone of “exceptional purity,” announced auction house Christie’s.
according to Rahul Kadakia, International Head of Christie’s Jewelry Department. The auction house had estimated the diamond’s value between $20 and $30 million.
It was hammered down at 17.4 million Swiss Francs, for a final price of $25,592,269 including fees, according to Christie’s.
The same stone, then known as the “Zoe Diamond,” was sold for $32.6 million at Sotheby’s in New York in 2014, setting world records at the time for a blue diamond and for price per carat.
The stone was owned for decades by Rachel Lambert Mellon, better known as “Bunny” Mellon (1910-2014), an American horticulturist, philanthropist, and art collector. At the time, the stone was mounted as a pendant.
Bunny Mellon is notably known for redesigning the White House Rose Garden in 1961 at the request of President John F. Kennedy.
The highest price ever achieved by Christie’s for a vivid blue diamond was set in Geneva in 2016 when the “Oppenheimer Blue” (14.62 carats) was sold for $57.5 million.
