A rare blue diamond took center stage on Tuesday. The gem appeared at a pre-auction exhibit of $100 million worth of the world’s rarest diamonds. Abu Dhabi, the capital of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates, hosted the show.
The eight diamonds on display at the Sotheby’s exhibit have a total weight of over 700 carats. They include red, yellow, pink, and colorless diamonds. Sotheby’s says the collection holds the “largest flawless diamond in the world” and the “second largest red diamond known to exist.”
Look at a common wooden pencil eraser. A one-carat diamond is approximately the size of the top circle.
Visitors to the Abu Dhabi show focused mostly on the sparkling 10.03-karat blue diamond from South Africa. The gem is known as the Mediterranean Blue. Experts consider it one of the most important blue diamonds ever discovered.
Quig Bruning is Sotheby’s head of jewels in North America, Europe, and the Middle East. He says blue diamonds are among the scarcest diamonds. Of those, vivid blue diamonds are rarer. Vivid blue diamonds over 10 carats are even rarer. So, Bruning says, “You’re at the peak of the peak of diamond rarity” with the Mediterranean Blue. (Read about another blue jewel here.)
Sotheby’s chose the United Arab Emirates for the exhibit location because of the Persian Gulf nation’s high interest in diamonds.
“We have great optimism about the region,” Bruning says. “We feel very strongly that this is the kind of place where you have both traders and collectors of diamonds of this importance and of this rarity.”
Sotheby’s expects to auction the extraordinary gemstone for about $20 million. The company will offer the diamond at the Geneva High Jewels auction in May.
On that day the Lord their God will save them, as the flock of His people; for like the jewels of a crown they shall shine on His land. — Zechariah 9:16
