World’s Most Expensive Gemstone: Blue Diamond

Identified as one of the unique gems in the world, a flawless blue diamond is now being honored as the most expensive gemstone in the world. The 6.04-carat diamond has been sold for $7.98 million at Sotheby’s auction in Hong Kong. To my non-surprise, the flawless blue diamond fetched $1.32 million per carat. The sale has beaten the record made 20-years-back by the ‘Hancock Red’ — a red diamond that generated $926,000 per carat at Sotheby’s.

The blessed buyer is ‘Moussaieff Jewellers’ based in London and he is glad to purchase this diamond from a private Asian collector, as it would be an addition to his rare collection of precious jewels. Blue diamonds are known for captivating the filthy rich gentry with glittering dark charisma. True, it is not the largest stone but its revered cut and ‘vibrant blue’ hue beats every other benchmark. Its revered cut and ‘vibrant blue’ hue is what justifies its bulky price that is almost 10 times the per-carat price of regular white diamonds.

The blue tinge is due to the presence of boron in the gem’s crystal formation. Unlike other colorful diamonds viz. pink and red that are mined in various sites across the globe, ‘blues’ are found very rare and that too in the Premier Mine located in South Africa.