Sotheby’s did a fine job in selling the 10.10 carat Fancy Vivid Blue Diamond in Hong Kong yesterday and in the process, broke a record; the most expensive Blue diamond ever to be sold in Asia. Also, if i am not mistaken, and i am comfortable with my assumption, they also broke the record by allowing for a single item account for over 43% of the final sales figure of the event. The top five lots of which two were Fancy Color Diamonds accounted for 58.4% of total sales. If it was not for the Vivid Blue Diamond, total sales of the auction would have still been higher than the previous year by 11.5%. The Vivid Blue allowed Sotheby’s to have almost double their sales figures from the previous year.

The 10.10 carat, Fancy Vivid Blue DeBeers Millennium Jewel 4, which was estimated at $30-$35 million ended up selling for $32,013,223 as per Sotheby’s results (accounting for their exchange rate). It did not break a world record, but it did break a local and important record. Asia is fast growing the appetite for unique diamonds for both collectors and investors to hold wealth with continued global financial imbalance.

10.10 carat, Fancy Vivid Blue, DeBeers Millennium Jewel 4, Sotheby’s

In terms of blue diamonds, now all eyes are on the upcoming New York auction for the Shirley Temple Fancy Deep Blue diamond. That diamond is valued at $25 million to $35 million.

9.54 carat, Fancy Deep Blue, Shirley Temple, Sotheby’s

The second Fancy Color Diamond star of the evening was the 4.08 carat Fancy Vivid Orange pear shape diamond, which was valued at $1.55 million to $1.81 million, but ended up selling for $2.486 million or 37.7% higher than the high estimate.

4.08 carat, Fancy Vivid Orange, Sotheby’s

The 10.30 carat Fancy Vivid Yellow, Graff ring, that was sold in 2014 and resold again this year, sold for $1.46 million compared to $1.375 million. No true gain has been made, but it simply demonstrates a price retention by exceptional fancy color diamonds and the fact that it is a Graff ring.

10.30 carat, Fancy Vivid Yellow, Graff Ring, Sotheby’s

The 4.90 carat, Fancy Intense Green, Heart shape did not sell, but the 2.01 carat Fancy Intense Green diamond did sell. It was estimated to sell between $284k to $335k and ended up selling for $381,662 total, or just under $190k per carat.

The unsold 4.90 carat, Fancy Intense Green Diamond ring, Sotheby’s

The overall auction by numbers was successful, some items did not sell, like any other auction, and the majority of items sold within the evaluation by Sotheby’s, meaning they are reading the market correctly. There is a major appetite for Blue diamonds this year, and it seems to have started when the 9.75 carat Zoe Blue Diamond was sold in New York in late 2014. This has allowed for a wave of unique blue diamonds to appear on the market. it may seem that there are many unique blue diamonds out there due to the noise being made by the media, but in fact there are still more picasso paintings out there then Unique Blue Diamonds…

9.75 carat, Fancy Vivid Blue, Zoe Diamond, Sotheby’s