Blue Moon Diamond sells for world record $48.4 million – Sotheby's

Nov 19, 2015 A rare and flawless “Blue Moon Diamond” recently sold for 48.6 million Swiss francs to a Hong Kong buyer.

The cushion-shaped diamond, which weighs 12.03 carats, had a pre-sale estimate of $35 to $55 million.

David Bennett, worldwide chairman of Sotheby’s international jewelry division, commented on the diamond saying:

“Tonight we set a new world record, a new auction record for any diamond, any jewel, any gemstone, with the sale of the Blue Moon Diamond, which has been named by a Hong Kong private collector “The Blue Moon of Josephine”. It sold for 48,468,000 -158,000 dollars per carat,”

David Bennett went on to say that the buyer promptly renamed it “The Blue Moon of Josephine”.

“For me the Blue Moon was always the blue diamond of my career. I’ve never seen a more beautiful stone. The shape, the color, the purity, it’s a magical stone and everybody, I think, who put it on their finger thought so,”

Going by reports, the blue diamond stone was found in South Africa’s famed Cullinan mine in January 2014.