Enthusiasts
Big Diamonds Dominate Spring Jewelry Auctions
Jewels du JourAfter the first string of important jewelry auctions last month, the spring auction season seemed to be on rocky ground heading into the May sales. However, the failed sale of the Shirley Temple Blue diamond back in April did nothing to stop the record-making prices fetched by the Oppenheimer, the Unique Pink and more important diamonds headlining the May auctions. The expression ‘when it rains, it pours’ is uncannily apt in the case of blue diamonds at auction recently. Almost every important jewelry sale this spring has featured a rare blue diamond, or two: Sotheby’s Hong Kong sold the De Beers Millenium Jewel 4, a 10.10-carat internally flawless Fancy Vivid blue diamond, for $31.8 million on April 5; the Shirley Temple Blue Diamond at Sotheby’s New York that failed to reach its $25 million low estimate; the 14.62-carat Oppenheimer Blue diamond at Christie’s Geneva, sold for a record $57.5 million; and, at Sotheby’s Geneva, a 7.32-carat internally flawless Fancy Vivid blue diamond fetched $17.1 million while a Fancy Intense blue diamond brooch, by Alexander Reza, brought in $13.6 million. Even after all these unprecedented sales of fancy blue diamonds, there is still one more left for the unlucky underbidders. Christie’s New York […]
