FASHION 27 ottobre 2010

The Bulgari Blue Diamond sold for over $15.7 million at auction

A Bulgari diamond ring, with a triangular-shaped 10.95 carat Fancy Vivid blue diamond (the largest of its kind) and a 9.87 carat colourless white diamond of the same shape, sold for $15,762,500.

Fancy Vivid blue diamonds, especially of this size, are among the rarest of coloured diamonds. Only one in about 10 million qualifies as Fancy Vivid.

The ring was originally purchased in 1972 at the Bulgari boutique in Via dei Condotti, Rome, for $1 million (equal to roughly $5 million today). Legend is that a European collector purchased the ring for his wife in celebration of the birth of their first baby boy.

At $1.4 million per carat, this sale represents the highest per carat price ever paid at auction for a blue diamond. Bidding for the celebrated blue diamond, available for sale at auction for the first time in almost 40 years, was brisk, with three individuals engaging in a spirited battle. The ultimate buyer was an Asian private collector who bought the ring by phone.