9.51-ct Mellon Blue Sells for $25.6m
November 12, 25
(IDEX Online) - The famed Mellon Blue diamond sold yesterday (11 November) for $25.6m, setting a record for Christie's but falling well short of the $32.6m it fetched in November 2014.
The 9.51-carat fancy vivid blue, internally flawless, pear-shaped diamond belonged to Rachel Lambert (Bunny) Mellon, the American Garden Queen, and carried a $20m to $30m estimate.
Christie's said it was the highest price for any of their jewelry lots this year and the third-highest price for any vivid blue diamond they'd ever sold.
Hong Kong billionaire property developer Joseph Lau paid $32.6m for the Mellon Blue at Sotheby's New York in 2014, which was a record price at the time for a blue diamond
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He had it recut from 9.75-cts to 9.51-cts to increase the clarity from VVS1 to IF and he named it the Zoe Diamond, after his 13-year-old daughter.
The Mellon Blue led the Magnificent Jewels auction at Christie's Geneva, which raised a total of $77.6m, with sell through rates of 95 per cent by value and 94 per cent by lot.
Pic, courtesy Christie's, shows the Mellon Blue diamond.