Bright blue diamond fetches US$25 million

The “Mellon blue”, a 9.51-carat vivid blue diamond mounted in a ring, was sold for more than 25 million dollars (R$132 million, at current prices) in Geneva today, a price reflected in the initial estimates for a stone “of exceptional purity”, announced the auction house Christie’s.

The vivid blue diamond, which “is among the most beautiful colored diamonds ever offered at auction”, according to Rahul Kadakia, international director of Christie’s jewelry department, had been estimated by the auction house to be worth between 20 and 30 million dollars (R$105 million and R$158 million). It was sold for 17.4 million Swiss francs and a final price of 25.5 million dollars (R$134 million) with taxes, according to Christie’s.

The same stone, then known as the “Zoe Diamond”, was sold for US$32.6 million (R$76.7 million at the time) at Sotheby’s in New York in 2014, reaching world records for a blue diamond. The stone, then mounted in a necklace, belonged for decades to Rachel Lambert Mellon, better known as “Bunny” Lambert Mellon (1910-2014), horticulturalist, philanthropist and collector of American art.