FILE - In this Nov. 4, 2015 file photo a Sotheby's employee displays the rare Blue Moon Diamond during a preview at  Sotheby's, in Geneva, Switzerland. The 12.03 carat blue diamond is the largest cushion shaped fancy vivid blue diamond  ever appear at auction. It is estimated to sell between 35 and 55 million US dollars. The auction will take place in Geneva, on Nov. 11, 2015. (Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP, file)
FILE – In this Nov. 4, 2015 file photo a Sotheby’s employee displays the rare Blue Moon Diamond during a preview at Sotheby’s, in Geneva, Switzerland. The 12.03 carat blue diamond is the largest cushion shaped fancy vivid blue diamond ever appear at auction. It is estimated to sell between 35 and 55 million US dollars. The auction will take place in Geneva, on Nov. 11, 2015. (Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP, file)

 

Geneva – Sotheby’s says a rare blue diamond has sold for a record 48.6 million Swiss francs ($48.5 million) at a Geneva auction, including fees.

The 12.03-carat ‘Blue Moon’ diamond, set in a ring, is said to be among the largest known fancy vivid blue diamonds and was the showpiece gem at Wednesday’s auction in Geneva. The price fell within the pre-auction estimate of $35-$55 million. A packed auction room broke into applause after the hammer came down at a price of 43.2 million Swiss francs, excluding fees.

The Blue Moon — so-called in reference to its rarity, playing off the expression “once in a blue moon” — topped the previous record price of $46.2 million set five years ago by The Graff Pink.

On its Twitter account, Sotheby’s said the jewel was purchased by a Hong Kong private collector and promptly renamed ‘The Blue Moon of Josephine’ — a similar name to one given to a pink diamond ring that sold for $28.5 million at Christie’s in Geneva a day earlier: ‘Sweet Josephine.’ That too was bought by a Hong Kong collector who was not publicly identified.

A Sotheby’s spokeswoman was not immediately available for comment.

The polished blue gem was cut from a 29.6-carat diamond discovered last year in South Africa’s Cullinan mine, which also yielded the 530-carat Star of Africa blue diamond in the British crown jewels.

Sotheby’s says experts took five months for an “intense study” of the original diamond, and a master cutter took another three months to craft, cut and polish the stone. The auction house said in a video that the Cullinan mine was the “only reliable source in the world for blue diamonds,” and only a tiny percentage of those found in it contain even a trace of blue.

Blue diamonds are formed when boron is mixed with carbon when the gem is created.

As reported by Vos Iz Neias