• Menü
    Stay
Schnellsuche

Blue Diamond' - The Largest Fancy Vivid Blue Diamond

Sotheby’s Presents One of the World’s Great Natural Treasures

THE DE BEERS CULLINAN BLUE DIAMOND

A Mesmerizing and Rare Fancy Vivid Blue Diamond Weighing 15.10 Carats

The Largest Fancy Vivid Blue Ever to Appear at Auction

Estimated in Excess of US$48 Million / HK$380 Million The Gem is Among the Most Valuable Blue Diamonds Ever Offered at Auction
AUCTION: LATE APRIL 2022 ︳SOTHEBY’S HONG KONG

NEW YORK, 16 February 2022 – Sotheby’s announces today that it will present The De Beers Cullinan Blue, an extraordinary natural treasure and one of the most valuable blue diamonds ever to be offered at auction. Estimated in excess of US$48 Million / HK$380 million, this extraordinary 15.10-carat step-cut blue has been recently cut from an exceptional rough stone discovered in April 2021. In its masterfully crafted, newly formed state, it now re-emerges as the largest vivid blue diamond ever to appear at auction and the largest internally flawless step cut vivid blue diamond that the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) has ever graded. Blue diamonds of this importance are exceptionally rare, with only five 10-carat+ examples ever having come to auction, none of which have exceeded 15 carats, making the appearance of this flawless gem a landmark event in itself.

The De Beers Cullinan Blue anchors Sotheby’s Hong Kong Luxury Week, and will be offered in a stand-alone, single lot live auction in late April 2022 (exact date to be announced). Given the global interest in a treasure of this nature, the diamond will be showcased on a worldwide tour. On view today in Sotheby’s galleries in New York, it will then travel to cities including London, Dubai, Singapore, Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, and Taipei (full dates will be released in due course).

Announcing the sale of the De Beers Cullinan Blue Diamond, Patti Wong, Chairman of Sotheby’s Asia, commented: “Blue diamonds of any kind are rare on the market, but this is the rarest of the rare; nothing of remotely similar calibre has appeared at auction in recent years. Hundreds of millions of years in the making, this extraordinary blue diamond is surely one of nature’s finest creations. Now brought to dazzling life by the hand of one of the world’s most skillful cutters, it is the ultimate masterpiece - as rare and desirable as the very greatest works of art. At a time of unprecedented demand for the finest, world-class, coloured diamonds, we are incredibly excited to bring to the market what is sure to become one of the most celebrated gems in the world.”

Wenhao Yu, Chairman of Jewellery and Watches at Sotheby’s Asia, added: “The De Beers Cullinan Blue stands as a proud masterpiece that has been gifted from nature with the hues of the sky and sea, perfected through a step-cut that is bold, distinctive and masterful. Among the rarest of stones in what is arguably the most desirable of colours - powerful and vivid, but at the same time calm and majestic - it must surely rank among the greatest wonders of the natural world. It is literally irresistible.”

Bruce Cleaver, CEO of De Beers Group said: “This diamond ranks as one of the best De Beers has ever seen. It is extremely rare and unique, and as the Home of Diamonds, De Beers is pleased to join together with Sotheby’s to bring this diamond to the world.”

The diamond was discovered at the Cullinan Mine in South Africa in 2021, one of very few sources in the world for extremely rare blue diamonds. Over the past year, De Beers has worked with its partner, Diacore, one of the most experienced master diamond cutters, to cut and polish the extraordinary rough diamond (pictured right) and bring The De Beers Cullinan Blue to life.

Blue Diamonds: Their Magic, Rarity and Ultimate Desirability
Among the rarest of all coloured diamonds, blue diamonds are a fabulous fluke of nature, their blue usually caused by the presence of trace amounts of the rare element boron within the diamond crystal lattice.

Quite aside from their rarity, the very fact of their colour makes blue diamonds ultimately covetable. Voted as the favourite colour of both men and women worldwide, the unequalled popularity – and mystery – of blue has endured for millennia. From Tutankhamun’s lapis lazuli-encrusted funeral mask, to the unmistakable works of Yves Klein. The poet Goethe felt that blue had “a peculiar and almost indescribable effect on the eye,” and the expressionist painter Wassily Kandinsky – one of the founding members of the group of artists known as the Blue Rider – wrote: “The deeper the blue the more it beckons man into the infinite, arousing a longing for purity and the supersensuous.” In nature too, blue is inextricably associated with the rare, the exotic and the magnificent: birds of paradise, tropical butterflies, peacocks. And, rarest of all, blue diamonds.

While other coloured diamonds can be found in mines around the world, there are very few sources for blue diamonds, most of which are recovered from the Cullinan mine in South Africa. Cullinan has yielded many of the world’s most famous diamonds, including the 530-carat Great Star of Africa, the largest faceted colourless diamond in the world. Cullinan continues to produce some of the world’s most extraordinary treasures including all of the De Beers Millennium blue diamonds, in particular the De Beers Millennium Jewel 4, a 10.10 carat oval-shaped Fancy Vivid blue that sold for $31.8 million at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in April 2016.








Neue Kunst Auktionen
168. Großen Auktion @ Historia
Die Auktion findet vom 09.bis 16. April 2024 ab 10.00 Uhr...
Frühjahrsauktion für Kunst
Frühjahrsauktion für Kunst & Antiquitäten am 20. April...
Auktion 78 vom 12. April 2024
Unsere Frühjahrsauktion 78 steht bevor. Geboten werden...
Meistgelesen in Auktionen
Japan, Südostasien und Indien
Antiquitäten und Kunst aus Asien haben bei Koller eine...
VIEL KUNST FÜR DIE SEELE –
Mit rund 3000 ausgewählten Ausrufnummern der vom 28. bis 30....
Zeitgenössische Kunst | 4. + 5
Gemälde | Aquarelle | Zeichnungen | Skulpturen | Multiples |...
  • De Beers Cullinan Blue_Estimated in Excess of US$48 Million
    De Beers Cullinan Blue_Estimated in Excess of US$48 Million
    Sotheby’s Auktionshaus
  • De Beers Cullinan Blue_Estimated in Excess of US$48 Million
    De Beers Cullinan Blue_Estimated in Excess of US$48 Million
    Sotheby’s Auktionshaus
  • De Beers Cullinan Blue_Estimated in Excess of US$48 Million
    De Beers Cullinan Blue_Estimated in Excess of US$48 Million
    Sotheby’s Auktionshaus
  • De Beers Cullinan Blue_Estimated in Excess of US$48 Million
    De Beers Cullinan Blue_Estimated in Excess of US$48 Million
    Sotheby’s Auktionshaus