For the second month running, diamonds from the De Beers Exceptional Blue Collection have failed to sell at auction, IDEX Online reports.
A 3.24-carat cushion brilliant-cut internally flawless fancy vivid blue ($5 million to $8 million estimate) was withdrawn before the sale at Sotheby’s New York. A 2.08-carat cushion-cut fancy intense blue ($1.2 million to $1.5 million estimate) was auctioned but failed to find a buyer at the same auction. In November, the first of eight stones in the collection – a 5.53-carat cushion brilliant-cut fancy vivid blue ($11 million to $1 5 million estimate) failed to sell at Sotheby’s Geneva.
The De Beers Exceptional Blue Collection, comprising eight blue diamonds recovered from Petra’s historic Cullinan mine in South Africa, 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.”
