He was also the buyer of a pink diamond that sold for $28.5 million. “Sold for 48 million, 468,000, 158 (US dollars)”.
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This is not the first time Lau has bought rare jewels for his daughter.
A fancy vivid purple-pink, pear-shaped diamond ring sold for 13.9 million francs, the second-highest lot of the night.
The previous record was held by the Graff Pink of 24.78 carats, sold by Sotheby’s for $46.2 million in November 2010. The diamond also set a new record of more than $4 million per carat, capping the daylong high-end jewelry sale that reaped roughly $140 million.
Lau is a property developer with a fortune estimated by Forbes at $9.8 billion.
The fancy orangy-pink diamond pendant, weighing 15.2 carats went for $4,044,162 at Sotheby’s in Geneva.
A Hong Kong billionaire convicted of corruption has spent 77 million United States dollars (£50.6 million) at auctions in Geneva on two rare coloured diamonds for his seven-year-old daughter. He named that one “Zoe Red”.
In March a year ago, he was found guilty of bribing a former minister in the gambling enclave of Macau in an attempt to purchase a prime development site. However, he remains free because Macau and Hong Kong have no extradition treaty.
Both cities are specially administered Chinese regions.
David Bennett, worldwide chairman of Sotheby’s global jewellery division, previously described the Blue Moon as a “simply sensational stone of ideal colour and purity”.
He specified the price as 48,468,158 dollars (£31,879,736), adding: “I have never seen a more lovely stone. It’s a magical stone”, Bennett said.
“The Blue Moon of Josephine was discovered at the Cullinan Mine, which is owned by Petra Diamonds, and was polished to perfection by Cora global”.
Sotheby’s said the sale took its total in Geneva for 2015 to $300 million dollars. It took three more months to bring the Blue Moon diamond to its ultimate spectacular shape using advanced technology and sophisticated tools.
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Blue diamonds are formed when boron is mixed with carbon when the gem is created.
