The Bulgari Blue Diamond breaks record price per carat for a blue diamond achieving $15,762,500 or $1.4 million a carat at Christie's Oct 20 auction in New York. The pre-sale estimate was $12 million. by Maria Doulton Set in a 1970's era Bulgari ring, the triangular-shaped Fancy Vivid blue diamond of 10.95 carats is the largest Fancy Vivid blue diamond of this cut ever to be presented at auction. Set into the same ring is triangular-shaped colorless diamond of 9.87 carats and was the highlight of this sale of 450 lots. The cut of these diamonds makes the ring easy to wear as it sits low on the hand, and is now the property of a private Asian buyer. Rahul Kadakia, Head of Jewellery for Christie's Americas commented: "A world record price was achieved on October 20 for The BVLGARI Blue, a much-celebrated stone that came up for sale at Christie's for the first time in almost 40 years. It had been purchased at the BVLGARI boutique in Rome in 1972 for just $1 million - the equivalent of $5 million today. With a sold price of $15.7 million, the stone tripled its value in that time, demonstrating the incredible resilience of diamonds in today's volatile economic environment and the true, lasting value of fine jewelry." A new record price per carat has been set with this diamond. Most recently the Wittelsbach-Graff, a 17th century fancy blue of 35.56 carats sold at Christie's in December 2008 for the world auction record for any diamond or jewel of $24,300,00.
