A pink diamond holds the current world record for sale at auction, set by Sotheby’s in November 2010 in Geneva, when a 24.78 carat pink diamond sold for $46 million.
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The 16.08-carat diamond, set in a platinum and gold ring, was bought by someone only identified as a “Chinese client who lives in Hong Kong”.
Sotheby’s sold a blue diamond for 48.6 million Swiss francs ($48.4 million) Wednesday night in Geneva, a record price for a jewel at auction.
The hue on the Blue Moon is, according to the GIA Monograph, “likely to have never before been seen within such a large diamond, or any gemstone”.
Lau is a property developer with a fortune estimated by Forbes at $9.8 billion.
“For me the Blue Moon was always the blue diamond of my career”, he said.
But this wasn’t Lau’s first big diamond purchase.
Christie’s said only three pink stones classified by the Gemological Institute of America as “fancy” and weighing more than 10 carats had been up for sale in 250 years.
Born in 1951 in Hong Kong with family roots in Guangdong’s Chaozhou, Lau graduated from a university in Canada in 1974, and joined his family’s business, which made ceiling fans.
The 12-carat diamond was found by Petra Diamonds in the Cullinan Mine in South Africa in January a year ago, a rare find, as blue diamonds make up only 0.1% of diamonds unearthed at the mine.
He also has two other children from his previous marriage to Bo Wing-kam.
A large blue diamond has become the most expensive piece of jewellery after being sold at an auction for £32million.
Nearly all diamonds have tiny traces of non-crystallised carbon – the element from which they are formed.
Overall, the sale garnered $109.4 million, with 80 percent sold by lot, and 86 percent sold by value. A Very Fine Sapphire and Diamond Ring more than doubled its presale high estimate, finally selling for CHF 3.2 million ($3.2 million).
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Coloured diamonds are among the rarest in the world, even ones that are not particularly vivid or clear.
