Fancy treating yourself? The world’s largest ever blue diamond is going up for auction on May 18 at Christie’s in Geneva. But you better have a healthy bank balance: It’s expected to sell for somewhere in the region of $59 million.
The stone — known as the Oppenheimer Blue, because it was previously owned by Sir Philip Oppenheimer who used to run De Beers — is a whopping 14.62 carats. That’s about a 3g, if you’re not used to handling diamonds.
Its sizes is only part of the justification for the price tag, though. Its colour is the other major selling point: According to Bloomberg, only 0.0001 per cent of all diamonds that come out of the earth are blue. Better get the check book out.
Image by Christies