Ocean Dream Sells for a Record $17.3m
May 17, 26
(IDEX Online) - The Ocean Dream, a 5.50-carat fancy vivid blue-green diamond, sold for a record $17.3 million at Christie's Geneva.
It was a record price for a stone of its color and intensity - way above $9 million to $13 million pre-sale estimate and double the $8.65 million it fetched when it was first sold in May 2014, also at Christie's Geneva.
The triangular-cut SI1-clarity diamond, set in an 18k white gold ring with sculpted rock crystal, with round and pink diamonds, was sold to a private collector after a 20-minute bidding battle on 13 May.
It started life as an 11.70-carat Type IIa rough, recovered in central Africa in 2002, and was cut by master diamond cutter Mazhar Saylam.
It was an agonizingly slow process because he had to make sure heat from the polishing process didn't destroy the green component that gave the gem its rarity and value.
GIA said it was the largest fancy vivid blue-green diamond it had ever graded.