Mellon Blue diamond sells for US$25.6 million
It was last sold for more than US$32 million in 2014; diamond expert blames geopolitical tensions and weakened Chinese economy for lower price
[GENEVA] The Mellon Blue, a 9.51-carat fancy vivid blue diamond formerly owned by US art collector Bunny Mellon, sold for US$25.6 million at an auction on Tuesday (Nov 11).
The rock was sold by auctioneers Christie’s in Geneva at its Magnificent Jewels sale in the Swiss city. It was sold for 20,525,000 Swiss francs at the Hotel des Bergues, having been estimated to fetch between 16 and 24 million francs.
Rahul Kadakia, who conducted the sale, said the price was evidence of the “elite appetite among collectors for extraordinary and storied gems”.
The stone, set in a serpentine ring, once belonged to Rachel Lambert Mellon, better known as Bunny Mellon, who was also known as a horticulturalist and philanthropist.
Max Fawcett, head of jewellery at Christie’s in Geneva, describing the Mellon Blue as “an outstanding stone”, added: “More than that, though, it has also become symbolic of a lifestyle of a bygone era – the type only possible with a Gilded Age fortune.”
The brilliant-cut stone is graded as internally flawless.
The diamond was last seen in public in 2014, when it was auctioned in New York after Mellon’s death at the age of 103, selling for more than US$32 million.
Tobias Kormind, managing director of Europe’s largest online diamond jeweller, 77 Diamonds, said in a statement that he was expecting the gem to go for a higher price on Tuesday.
“Geopolitical tensions ... and a weakened Chinese economy that kept many usual buyers away, left the room distinctly cautious,” he said.
“Whether this restraint will ripple through the rest of the Geneva season remains to be seen.”
Sotheby’s is holding its annual Royal & Noble Jewels sale in Geneva on Wednesday.
A brooch seized from Napoleon Bonaparte as he fled the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, laden with old mine-cut diamonds has been valued at between US$150,000 and US$250,000.
Also going under the hammer is a 10.08-carat vivid pink diamond, named “The Glowing Rose”, which is expected to be sold at around US$20 million.
The gem “of exceptional quality” was named after its “extremely rare” luminous and pure pink colour, Sotheby’s said. AFP
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