Sotheby’s mentioned Thursday it’s going to provide a bunch of eight Fancy blue diamonds that can be bought throughout its Magnificent Jewels auctions in New York, Geneva and Hong Kong starting in November by way of the Spring of 2023. Named “The De Beers Distinctive Blue Assortment,” this group of uncommon Fancy Coloured diamonds has a mixed complete worth of greater than $70 million, the public sale home mentioned. Nonetheless, the excessive estimate for the eight gems is $84.8 million.

Sotheby’s in a press release mentioned the diamonds exhibit “excellent hues, even colour distribution and saturation” that makes it one of many “rarest and most notable collections of coloured diamonds on this planet.” All of the diamonds have been sourced and assembled by De Beers, the venerable diamond mining and advertising large, and crafted into completed items by Diacore, which makes a speciality of chopping and sprucing uncommon gems. All the flamboyant blue diamonds are showing at public sale for the primary time.

“Recovered from the historic Cullinan mine in South Africa, the De Beers Distinctive Blues are a real testomony of our world’s most extraordinary treasures and what’s but to be found,” Quig Bruning, head of Sotheby’s Jewels, Americas, mentioned in a press release.

“The invention of a gem-quality blue diamond of any dimension is a uncommon incidence, so to have the chance to supply not one, however eight dazzling blues in a variety of shapes and weights, is subsequently actually distinctive,” added Wenhao Yu, chairman of Jewelry and Watches at Sotheby’s Asia.

The gathering consists of eight blue diamonds described as “phenomenal” by Sotheby’s of varied shapes and weights totaling 32.09 carats. They vary in dimension from a 1.22-carat oval brilliant-cut to a 11.29-carat step-cut. Three of those diamonds can be supplied this 12 months. A 5.53-carat cushion brilliant-cut Fancy Vivid Blue diamond with an estimate of $11 million – $15 million can be a spotlight of Sotheby’s Magnificent and Noble Jewels public sale in Geneva on November 9. Two of the gems: a 3.24-carat cushion brilliant-cut Internally Flawless Fancy Vivid Blue with an estimate of $5 million – $8 million and a 2.08-carat cushion-cut Fancy Intense Blue with an estimate of $1.2 million – $1.5 million can be supplied within the December 7 public sale of Magnificent Jewels in New York.

A full breakdown of The De Beers Distinctive Blue Assortment is as follows:

• De Beers Distinctive Blue 11.29: a step-cut Fancy Vivid Blue, weighing 11.29 carats (estimate: $28 million – $50 million)
• De Beers Distinctive Blue 5.53: a cushion brilliant-cut Fancy Vivid Blue, weighing 5.53 (estimate: $11 million – $15 million)
• De Beers Distinctive Blue 4.13: a step-cut Fancy Intense Blue, weighing 4.13 carats (estimate: $2.5 million – $3.5 million)
• De Beers Distinctive Blue 3.24: a cushion brilliant-cut Internally Flawless Fancy Vivid Blue, weighing 3.24 carats (estimate: $5 million – $8 million)
• De Beers Distinctive Blue 3.10: a cushion brilliant-cut Fancy Vivid Blue, weighing 3.10 carats (estimate: $4.5 million – $5 million)
• De Beers Distinctive Blue 2.08: a cushion-cut Fancy Intense Blue, weighing 2.08 carats (estimate: $1.2 million – $1.5 million)
• De Beers Distinctive Blue 1.50: a spherical brilliant-cut Fancy Intense Blue, weighing 1.50 carats (estimate: $750,000 – $1 million)
• De Beers Distinctive Blue 1.22: an oval brilliant-cut Fancy Intense Blue, weighing 1.22 carats (estimate: $600,000 – $800,000)

Of the eight blue diamonds, 4 have been graded by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) as Fancy Vivid, the very best colour grading for coloured diamonds. The De Beers Distinctive 3.24 carat cushion brilliant-cut diamond was graded as Internally Flawless by the GIA.

In November 2020, De Beers and Diacore collectively bought 5 uncommon blue tough diamonds from the legendary Cullinan mine that weighed a complete of 85.62 carats. Over a interval of practically two years, Diacore lower and polished the 5 roughs—ranging in dimension from 9.61 to 25.75 carats–and reworked them into the gathering of eight fancy blue diamonds.

“The magnificent De Beers Distinctive Blue Assortment stands as testomony to De Beers’ distinctive skill to supply the rarest diamonds on this planet, and the endurance and foresight required to assemble a set that transcends rarity and may solely be known as exceptional,” mentioned Bruce Cleaver, the outgoing CEO of De Beers Group.

Blue diamonds are thought of one of many rarest colours of all diamonds. The hue is produced by the random presence of the atomic lattice-bound hint aspect boron inside the diamond’s carbon construction throughout its formation deep within the earth’s core. Immediately, “blue diamond discoveries of any dimension are nonetheless sporadic and an all the time astonishing incidence,” Sotheby’s mentioned.

The gathering of diamonds was unveiled in New York Wednesday and can go on a tour to the next cities:

• Hong Kong: October 17-19
• Singapore: October 20-21
• Taipei: October 26 – 27
• Geneva: November 4 – 8

The file for the general value of a Fancy Vivid blue diamond is held by The Oppenheimer Blue that fetched greater than $57.5 million in 2016; and the per cart value file for a Fancy Vivid Blue diamond is the Blue Moon of Josephine that achieved $4 million per carat in 2015.

Extra lately, the 15.10-carat “De Beers Cullinan Blue,” the most important vivid blue diamond ever to seem at public sale, fetched greater than $57.4 million and roughly $3.8 million per carat at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in April.