A 5.53-carat cushion brilliant-cut Fancy Vivid blue diamond – the first of eight stones from the De Beers Exceptional Blue Collection to be offered at auction – failed to reach its minimum estimate and did not sell, according to IDEX Online.
The 5.53-carat blue was estimated at $11 million to $15 million and headed the lot at Sotheby’s Geneva Magnificent Jewels and Noble Jewels auction. It is part of the De Beers Exceptional Blue Collection, comprising eight blue diamonds recovered from Petra’s historic Cullinan mine in South Africa. The collection has a total of just over 32 carats, and its most impressive diamond is the De Beers Exceptional Blue – a 11.29, a step-cut Fancy Vivid blue weighing 11.29 carats that could go for anywhere between $28 million to $50 million.
Four of the eight diamonds are graded Fancy Vivid by the GIA, the highest of all color gradings. A 3.24-carat gem, dubbed the De Beers Exceptional, is also graded as “internally flawless.”
The collection is offered on sale in Geneva, New York and Hong Kong from November 2022 to early 2023, with two more blue diamonds to be auctioned at Sotheby’s New York Magnificent Jewels sale on December 7.
