De Beers Millennium Blue Diamond (5 April 2016) - Estimate: US$ 30-35 million (HK$ 235 - 280 million)

Hong Kong, 11 March 2016 Sotheby’s Hong Kong is honoured to present the ‘De Beers Millennium Jewel 4’, a rare and superb Oval Fancy Internally Flawless Vivid Blue Diamond weighing 10.10 carats – the largest oval fancy vivid blue diamond ever to appear at auction (Est. HK$235 – 280 million / US$30 – 35 million), at the Magnificent Jewels and Jadeite Spring Sale on 5 April 2016. Offered for sale from an Asian private collection, ‘De Beers Millennium Jewel 4’ is the only oval-shaped stone among the twelve rare diamonds - eleven blue and one colourless – that form the world-renowned De Beers Millennium Jewels collection unveiled by De Beers in 2000 in celebration of the millennium. Each of the eleven blue diamonds in the collection boasts a combination of colour intensity, even saturation and brilliance that are rivalled by few other stones.

De Beers Millennium Jewels: A Once-in-a-Millennium Experience To celebrate the millennium in 2000, De Beers, together with The Steinmetz Group, showcased an exceptional collection of rare and valuable diamonds, namely the ‘De Beers Millennium Jewels’, in a specially designed exhibit at London’s Millennium Dome. Assembled over decades, the collection consisted of the 203.04-carat colourless diamond ‘Millennium Star’ and eleven phenomenal blue diamonds (pictured right) of various shapes and sizes, totalling 118 carats, all expertly cut and polished. Nine out of the eleven blue diamonds have been graded by the GIA as of Fancy Vivid colour, the highest possible colour grading for coloured diamonds, and two of Fancy Intense colour. All of them originate from the Cullinan Mine in South Africa and each was specially inscribed with a De Beers Millennium number using a proprietary branding technique. Since their initial appearance at the Millennium Exhibition in 2000, only one of these diamonds have ever come into the open market, when Sotheby’s Hong Kong sold the ‘De Beers Millennium Jewel 11’, a 5.16-carat Internally Flawless Pear-shaped Fancy Vivid Blue Diamond, in April 2010.

De Beers Millennium Jewels: A Once-in-a-Millennium Experience To celebrate the millennium in 2000, De Beers, together with The Steinmetz Group, showcased an exceptional collection of rare and valuable diamonds, namely the ‘De Beers Millennium Jewels’, in a specially designed exhibit at London’s Millennium Dome. Assembled over decades, the collection consisted of the 203.04-carat colourless diamond ‘Millennium Star’ and eleven phenomenal blue diamonds (pictured right) of various shapes and sizes, totalling 118 carats, all expertly cut and polished. Nine out of the eleven blue diamonds have been graded by the GIA as of Fancy Vivid colour, the highest possible colour grading for coloured diamonds, and two of Fancy Intense colour. All of them originate from the Cullinan Mine in South Africa and each was specially inscribed with a De Beers Millennium number using a proprietary branding technique. Since their initial appearance at the Millennium Exhibition in 2000, only one of these diamonds have ever come into the open market, when Sotheby’s Hong Kong sold the ‘De Beers Millennium Jewel 11’, a 5.16-carat Internally Flawless Pear-shaped Fancy Vivid Blue Diamond, in April 2010^.

Blue Diamonds
Extremely rare and highly coveted in history for its captivating blue sparkle, blue diamonds owe their colour to impurities of boron during the stone’s formation, and many are naturally modified with a grey secondary tone, or an uneven saturation with areas of colourless windowing. Blue diamonds make up much less than 0.1 percent of all diamonds recovered at the Cullinan mine, and to discover one annually of quality and size is an extremely unusual occurrence. Very few stones have the intensity or even saturation as these Millennium blue diamonds and it is this combination of colour, saturation and brilliance that make them truly miracles of Nature.

Sotheby’s Currently Holds Auction Records for Blue, Pink, Yellow, Green and Colourless Diamonds:
World Auction Record & Record Price-per-carat for any Diamond or Gemstone
 The Blue Moon of Josephine 12.03-carat Cushion-Shaped Fancy Internally Flawless Vivid Blue Diamond Sotheby’s Geneva, November 2015 Sold for US$48,468,158 (US$4,028,941 per carat)

World Auction Record for any Pink Diamond
The Graff Pink
24.78-carat Emerald-cut Fancy Intense Pink Diamond Sotheby’s Geneva, November 2010 Sold for US$46,158,674 (US$1,862,739 per carat) World Auction Record for any Colourless Diamond 118.28-carat Oval-shaped D colour Flawless Type IIa Diamond Sotheby’s Hong Kong, October 2013 Sold for US$30,600,000 (US$258,708 per carat)

World Auction Record for any Yellow Diamond
The Graff Vivid Yellow
Fancy Vivid Yellow diamond weighing 100.09 carats, VS2 Clarity Sotheby’s Geneva, May 2014 Sold for US$16,347,847 (US$163,331 per carat)

World Auction Record Price-per-carat for any Green Diamond
Cushion Modified Brilliant-Cut Vivid Green Diamond weighing 2.52 Carats Sotheby’s Geneva, November 2009 Sold for US$3,078,914 (US$1,221,791 per carat)