Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Size Doesn't Always Matter... Record-Breaking Blue Diamond


One of the rarest gems in the world, a flawless blue diamond, has sold for US$7.98 million (3.91 million pounds) at a Sotheby's auction in Hong Kong, making it the most expensive gemstone in the world, per carat, sold at auction. Today, it broke the twenty-year-old world record set by the “Hancock Red” diamond, which fetched $926,000 (£456,000) per carat in New York in April 1987.

Below are other facts regarding the blue diamond:

- The 6.04 carat blue diamond was bought by Alisa Mousaieff of "Moussaieff Jewellers" in London which has a reputation for acquiring extremely rare and costly gemstones.

- The diamond will be brought back to London but not for display to the public. The stone will be locked away in the vaults at Moussaieff Jewellers in Mayfair. Ms Moussaieff explained that it will be shown only to “legitimate hard-nosed business clients”.

- Blue diamonds have long captivated the rich and powerful-- shimmering with a certain dark mystique.

  • The famous "Hope Diamond", a 45.52 carat grey-blue beauty, was passed down through the ages by King Louis XIV of France, Marie Antoinette and American heiress Evalyn Walsh McClean among others. It now rests in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C.
  • The Sultan of Brunei is thought to have snapped up another massive blue diamond when it surfaced briefly on the market in the 1980s.

- Other coloured diamonds with pink and red hues can be mined in multiple locations across the globe including Brazil, India and Australia, but "blues" are mostly found at just one site on earth -- the Premier Mine in South Africa.

- The blue hue is a result of trace amounts of boron in the stone's crystal structure.

- “It’s the colour, the purity and "the life" of the stone. The life of the stone is the water, the shimmer inside the diamond. Its cut and the number of carats may appear on the certificate, but the life you have to see," Ms Moussaieff said. According to her, the rarity combined with the lustre of this particular stone made it irresistible, thus amounting to the very large, record-breaking price.


Source:
Timesonline


Here's a video on the headlining blue diamond:

Blue Diamond Unveiled


As the saying goes, "size doesn't matter", it holds true even to gems like diamonds. What matters is the quality, that is what makes it valuable, and, yes, very, very pricey. Because of its immaculate cut and vivid blue color, this blue diamond beats the world record today at the price of almost $8 million dollars. Watch the video and see how the diamond would actually look, it is sparklingly gorgeous!



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--My Life Is Beautiful

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