To be auctioned by Sotheby’s in late April, the De Beers Cullinan Blue Diamond is considered to be one of the greatest natural treasures
February 17, 2022: The expressionist painter Wassily Kandinsky – one of the founding members of the group of artists known as the Blue Rider – wrote: “The deeper the blue the more it beckons man into the infinite, arousing a longing for purity and the supersensuous.” So is true for blue diamonds. One of the rarest phenomena in nature, blue diamonds are coveted for their brilliance, colour and uniqueness. So as Sotheby’s announces the auction of The De Beers Cullinan Blue, one of the most valuable blue diamonds, the world is sure to notice!
Estimated in excess of US$48 million, this extraordinary 15.10-carat step-cut blue has been recently cut from an exceptional rough stone discovered in April 2021. In its new state, it emerges as the largest vivid blue diamond ever to appear at auction and the largest internally flawless step cut vivid blue diamond that the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) has ever graded. Blue diamonds of this importance are exceptionally rare, with only five 10-carat+ examples ever having come to auction.
The De Beers Cullinan Blue will be offered at Sotheby’s Hong Kong Luxury Week in late April 2022.
Wenhao Yu, Chairman of Jewellery and Watches at Sotheby’s Asia, said, “The De Beers Cullinan Blue stands as a proud masterpiece that has been gifted from nature with the hues of the sky and sea, perfected through a step-cut that is bold, distinctive and masterful. Among the rarest of stones in what is arguably the most desirable of colours - powerful and vivid, but at the same time calm and majestic - it must surely rank among the greatest wonders of the natural world. It is literally irresistible.”
The diamond was discovered at the Cullinan Mine in South Africa in 2021, one of very few sources in the world for extremely rare blue diamonds. Over the past year, De Beers worked with its partner, Diacore, to cut and polish the extraordinary rough diamond and bring The De Beers Cullinan Blue to life.
Among the rarest of all coloured diamonds, blue diamonds are a fabulous fluke of nature, their blue usually caused by the presence of trace amounts of the rare element boron within the diamond crystal lattice.
While other coloured diamonds can be found in mines around the world, there are very few sources for blue diamonds, most of which are recovered from the Cullinan mine in South Africa. Cullinan has yielded many of the world’s most famous diamonds, including the 530-carat Great Star of Africa, the largest faceted colourless diamond in the world. Cullinan continues to produce some of the world’s most extraordinary treasures including all of the De Beers Millennium blue diamonds, in particular the De Beers Millennium Jewel 4, a 10.10 carat oval-shaped Fancy Vivid blue that sold for $31.8 million at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in April 2016.
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