The blue diamond sold for SFr. 56,837,000 (£39,597,144) including buyer’s premium at the “Magnificent Jewels” sale on May 18. The 14.62ct fancy vivid blue rectangular-cut stone is the largest vivid blue diamond ever to appear at auction. It was estimated at an already record-setting £34.5m.
“Selling the Oppenheimer blue diamond was a real privilege and the result proves that there is still a strong demand for high end quality stones,” said Rahul Kadakia, international head of Christie’s jewellery department.
The stone was named in honour of its previous owner Philip Oppenheimer (1911-1995) of the De Beers Mining Company. It is thought to have been consigned at this sale by a jewellery dealer, and sold after 25 minutes of bidding. The buyer has remained anonymous.
The sale took a combined total of Sfr.167,185,332 (£116,474,509) with 86% of the 285 lots offered sold.
The sale followed another auction earlier in the week which included one of jewels from the collection of H.S.H. Gabriela Princess zu Leiningen which sold 100% of its lots.
Geneva Watch Sales
The sale concluded Christie’s latest sales series in Geneva which started on May 16 with the auction of ‘Rare Watches Including Important Private Collections.’
A standout of that sale was a Havas Breguet pocket watch which sold which sold for SFr.3,245,000 (GB£2,260,723) over a SFr.600,000-1,200,000/GB£418,007-836,014 estimate, becoming the most expensive watch of the season.
The next highest selling lot at that sale was a Patek Philippe chronograph wristwatch which took SFr1,205,000 (£839,498) over an estimate of SFr.500,000-800,000 to set a record price for stainless steel sector dial watches.
