The latest blue diamond to hit the auction block certainly lives up to its namesake.
The 10.03-carat Mediterranean Blue gem will be the crown jewel at Sotheby’s High Jewelry Auction this May, on sale (for the first time) alongside a series of other dazzling collectibles. With its gorgeous fancy vivid blue hue that’s reminiscent of the waters off the Cote d’Azur, the cushion modified brilliant diamond is estimated to fetch $20 million (CHF 18 million) in the sale.
The extremely rare gem, which has a VS2 clarity, has received the highest possible color grading for a blue diamond from the Gemological Institute of America. Better still: The stone is also classified as a Type IIb, a designation that includes less than 0.5 percent of all diamonds.
The diamond was unearthed from the same mine that produced the $57.5 million De Beers Cullinan.
Sotheby’s
As for its origins, the Mediterranean Blue was yielded from a 31.94-carat rough diamond discovered in South Africa’s Cullinan mine, where other blue gems have been found in recent years, back in 2023. After being studied for over 12 months, the stone on offer was shaped into a cushion modified brilliant after a planning and cutting process that last six months. The diamond’s carefully positioned triangular- and kite- facets help it reflect the light, giving it that classic sparkle.
And if you’d like to sneak a peek at the rare stone before it heads to the block, the Mediterranean Blue is making its world debut in Abu Dhabi next month. The diamond will be part of a special exhibition at the Bassam Freiha Art Foundation, a non-profit located in the Saadiyat Island Cultural District. Then, the piece will be whisked away to Tapei, Hong Kong, and New York, before settling in at Geneva for its auction on May 13.
“The Mediterranean Blue represents one of nature’s rarest gems,” Quig Bruning, Sotheby’s head of jewelry, Americas and EMEA, said in a press statement. “Any vivid blue diamond is a discovery worth celebrating, but one as entrancing as this, particularly being over 10-carats, is a newsworthy event. The Mediterranean Blue’s remarkable size, charming cushion-cut and ocean-blue color places it in the rarefied company of some of the most important blue diamonds to come to market in recent years.”
Thanks to their rarity—less than 0.1 percent of any diamonds sourced show any evidence of a blue hue, according to Sotheby’s—blue diamonds have long held public interest, and they often cause quite a stir when they hit the block. The Infinite Blue gem, for example, hammered down for a cool $25 million at a Sotheby’s auction in 2023, slightly below its $26 million low estimate. The 15.10-carat De Beers Cullinan, meanwhile, sold for a whopping $57.5 million three years ago; also discovered in the Cullinan mine, that stone remains the largest blue diamond to ever come to auction.
