The “Cullinan Dream,” the largest and most expensive fancy intense blue diamond ever sold at auction, fetched $25.3 million Thursday at Christie’s New York Magnificent Jewels sale.
The Cullinan Dream is the largest of the four gems cut from the 122.52 ct rough blue diamond discovered in 2014 at the Cullinan mine in South Africa.
The rectangular-cut diamond is set into a platinum ring inscribed with “Cullinan Dream” and flanked by two baguette-cut diamonds, totalling 2.36ct. The gem is the latest in a string of blue diamonds this auction season. It’s nearly 10 carats larger than the 14.62-carat “Oppenheimer Blue,” which sold for a world auction record of $57.5 million and was previously the largest blue diamond ever sold at auction.
Among those in the audience at auction was Mark Cullinan, the great grandson of Sir Thomas Cullinan, who discovered Petra’s Cullinan Diamond Mine in 1898, where the Cullinan Dream originated. Mark Cullinan said. “My great-grandfather would be delighted to see how one of the newest exceptional blue diamonds from the mine he discovered resonates with top collectors in the market today.”
Natural Blue Diamonds are very rare…. Since 2008 out of the eighteen million tonnes mined and five million carats recovered, only five world-class blue diamonds have emerged from Cullinan, or less than 0.1 per cent of the mine’s annual yield.
Info from:
Forbes, 24-Carat ‘Cullinan Dream’ Blue Diamond Sells For $25.3 Million, Anthony DeMarco
A little bit about Blue Diamonds
GIA, Petra, NCDIA