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SOTHEBY'S

Tycoon spends $48m on ‘Blue Moon’ for daughter

An exceptional 12.03-carat diamond dubbed "Blue Moon" was sold in Geneva for 48.6 million Swiss francs ($48.4 million) on Wednesday, setting a new world record, auction house Sotheby's said.

Tycoon spends $48m on 'Blue Moon' for daughter
The blue diamond fetched the highest ever price per carat. Photo: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP

The 12.03-carat diamond was bought by Hong Kong billionaire Joseph Lau who immediately renamed it “The Blue Moon of Josephine” after his seven-year-old daughter.
   
The sale comes just a day after Property tycoon Lau, who last year was found guilty of bribery in neighbouring Macau, spent $28.5 million buying a rare 16.08-carat pink diamond — the largest of its kind to ever go under the hammer — from rival auction house Christie's, which he rebaptised “Sweet Josephine”.

A Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for Lau confirmed the two purchases to AFP.
   
“The first was the pink one 'Sweet Josephine' and the second one was the 'Blue Moon of Josephine',” she said.
   
David Bennett, head of Sotheby's international jewellery division, said the “Blue Moon” sale broke several records, making the gemstone “the most expensive diamond, regardless of colour, and the most expensive jewel ever sold at auction”.
   
The jewel, set in a ring, was sold for 48.6 million Swiss francs ($48.4 million, 40 million euros), including fees, with a starting bid of 43.2 million Swiss francs.
   
It also fetched the highest-ever price per carat, he said, with the buyer shelling out 4.02 million Swiss francs per carat.
   
The previous world record for a jewel sold at auction was held by the 24.78-carat “Graff Pink” diamond, which was sold by Southeby's for $46.2 million in November 2010.
   
This is not the first time Lau has bought rare jewels for his daughter. In 2009, he reportedly spent $9.5 million on another blue diamond, which he renamed the “Star of Josephine”.
   
Josephine is his daughter with girlfriend and former aid Chan Hoi-wan, according to local media. The 64-year-old also has two children with long-time partner Yvonne Lui.
   
In March last year, he was found guilty of bribing a former minister in the gambling enclave of Macau in an attempt to purchase a prime development site.
   
Lau, who was not in Macau for the sentencing, is unlikely serve time as the two semi-autonomous Chinese cities do not have an extradition agreement.
   
He was locked in a telephone bidding war for eight minutes for “Blue Moon” before the hammer went down, with the precious jewel staying within its pre-sale estimate of $35-55 million.
   
The diamond was discovered in South Africa in January last year and was the largest cushion-shaped blue stone in the fancy vivid category to ever appear at auction.
   
Experts say the market for coloured diamonds has grown increasingly robust and both the blue and pink diamonds garnered a lot of attention in the run up to this week's jewel sales in Geneva.

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DIAMOND

Rare pink diamond to go under hammer in Geneva

An extremely rare pink diamond will be auctioned in Geneva on November 11 by Sotheby's, which says it is worth between $23 and $38 million.

Rare pink diamond to go under hammer in Geneva
A model poses with the “The Spirit of the Rose” diamond during a press preview on Friday. Photo: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP
Named “The Spirit of the Rose” after a famous Russian ballet, the 14.83-carat diamond mined in Russia is the biggest ever to go under the hammer in its category — “fancy vivid purple-pink”.
 
The occurrence of pink diamonds in nature is extremely rare in any size,” Gary Schuler, head of Sotheby's jewellery division, said in a statement. “Only one per cent of all pink diamonds are larger than 10-carats.”
   
Speaking to AFP, Benoit Repellin, head of fine jewellery auctions at Sotheby's Geneva, said the oval-shaped diamond was “completely pure.”
 
 
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The rough diamond was unearthed by Russia's Alrosa — one of the world's leading diamond producers — in the Republic of Sakha in the northeast of the country in July 2017.
   
Repellin said it took a painstaking year for cutting masters to turn the diamond into its polished form.
   
Sotheby's said the world auction record for a diamond and any gemstone or jewel was the “CTF Pink Star”, a 59.60-carat oval pink diamond that sold for $71.2 million in Hong Kong in 2017.
   
According to Repellin, five out of the 10 most valuable diamonds ever sold at auction were pink.
   
The sale of this gem coincides with the closure of the world's largest pink diamond mine in Australia after it exhausted its reserves of the precious stones.
   
The Argyle mine, in the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia, churned out more than 90 percent of the world's pink diamonds.
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