Most expensive diamond: 'Blue Moon' Diamond breaks Guinness World Records record (VIDEO)
GENEVA, Switzerland -- The Blue Moon, a 12.03 ct. internally flawless vivid blue cushion cut, fetched $48.5 million at the Sotheby's Nov. 11 sale in Geneva, earning it a place in the record books as the most expensive diamond ever sold at auction; yhe sale also set a price-per-carat record for a gemstone: $4.02 million per ct., according to the World Record Academy. Photo: The extremely rare and flawless "Blue Moon Diamond" sold for $48.4 million to a Hong Kong buyer, setting a world record for a gemstone at auction. The cushion-shaped diamond, mounted on a ring, has the top grading of fancy vivid blue and weighs 12.03 carats. Photo: Sotheby's (enlarge photo)
The Guinness World Records' record for the Most expensive diamond per carat is $1,375,938 (£854,705), for a 7.03-carat fancy vivid blue modified rectangular brilliant-cut diamond sold at Sotheby's, Geneva, Switzerland, on 12 May 2009. The total which it sold for was given in Swiss francs = CHF 10,498,500 or £6,000,000 ($9,959,000).
Guinness World Records also recognized the world record for the Most expensive diamond sold at auction, set by Blue Moon of Josephine, a 12.03-carat cushion-shaped fancy vivid blue diamond, sold for US$48,468,158 (CHF 48,634,000; £31,939,478; €45,238,998), including commission, at Sotheby's auction, in Geneva, Switzerland, on 11 November 2015. It tops—though not significantly—the previous record held by the Graff Pink, the 24.78 ct. fancy intense pink, which sold for $46.1 million in November 2010.
The stone's buyer was a private collector from Hong Kong who changed its name to the Blue Moon of Josephine.
The Blue Moon is among the few blues with a fancy vivid grade—the highest rating for a colored diamond. The stone comes from a 29.62 ct. piece of rough discovered by Petra Diamonds at the Cullinan mine in South Africa in January 2014.
It sold for $25.6 million a month later to New York City–based Cora International, which then spent six months cutting and polishing it.
The auction also set a world record for a fancy orangey pink diamond. The 15.2 ct. VS2 clarity stone, from the collection of Sir Sean Connery, sold for $4.04 million, or $266,063 a carat.
