The 15.10-carat step-cut gem has an impeccable clarity and a fancy vivid blue color. The diamond is called De Beers Cullinan Blue and is the world’s largest stone of this shade, among those ever presented at auction.
The amount earned was equal to the value of the previous blue diamond record holder, a 14-carat Oppenheimer Blue sold by Christie’s in 2016 for the same $57.5 million.
To date, only five blue diamonds over 10 carats have been offered for sale by the auction house, according to Sotheby’s. And none of them could reach the weight of 15 carats, although each earned tens of millions of dollars. So, the list of outstanding specimens included:
However, one cannot fail to mention another significant blue diamond that has earned the status of the largest fancy intense blue stone – Cullinan Dream weighing in at a staggering 24.18 carats. The gem earned $25.3 million at Christie’s New York Magnificent Jewels auction in 2016.
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Petra Diamonds, which mined the current hero De Beers Cullinan Blue, discovered the original 39.35 carat diamond in April 2021 at its Cullinan mine in South Africa. In July, De Beers and Diacore purchased the stone for $40.2 million and Diacore took over the processing.