The Most Expensive Blue Diamond You’ll Ever See, But Never Touch Sold For $32.6M

This 9.75-carat blue diamond set two world records when it was auctions for $32.5 million dollars at Sotheby’s Thursday. (Sotheby’s)

In the past, Consumerist has reported on some high-priced, heavily sought-after auction items –– there was the most valuable stamp that sold for $9.5 million and the world’s most expensive bottle of whiskey priced at $628,205. But combining those two winning bid wouldn’t even get you close to half of the $32.6 million someone bid to win a blue diamond at Sotheby’s Thursday night.

Forbes reports that the $32.645 million winning bid for the 9.75-carat fancy vivid blue diamond set two records: the highest bid for a blue diamond and the highest price-per-carat for any diamond ($3,348,205 per-carat).

The diamond, which was from the collection of heiress and philanthropist Rachel Lambert Mellon, also shattered its high estimated bid price of $15 million.

“From the moment I saw this diamond, I knew that it would be one of the most important stones that I will ever have the privilege of presenting at auction,” Gary Schuler, head of Sotheby’s Jewelry Department in New York, tells Forbes. “Mrs Mellon’s diamond absolutely deserves the place in the record books that it achieved tonight.”

In all, seven bidders spent 20 minutes trying to win the pear-shaped diamond. The gem ultimately sold to a Hong Kong private collector, who named it “The Zoe Diamond,” Forbes reports.

The previous high-bid blue diamond record holder sold for $24.3 million at Christie’s in London in 2008. The earlier per-carat auction record of $2.4 million per-carat was set by a 14.82-carat fancy vivid orange diamond at Christie’s in Geneva in 2013.

My colleague Chris says I can’t run a story about blue diamonds without including this:

Bunny Mellon’s Blue Diamond Sells For More Than $32.6 Million, Sets Two World Auction Records [Forbes]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist