Geneva auction sees record diamond sales

A blue diamond, the rarest kind in the world, has fetched a record price of $58 million (CHF57 million) at auction in Geneva, while a pink diamond did the same earlier this week.

The sales were part of a record-breaking $175 million jewelry auction at Sotheby’s in Geneva on Tuesday.

Nicknamed the Oppenheimer Blue, the blue jewel weighs in at 14.62 carats and was named after its previous owner, Sir Philip Oppenheimer. His family controlled the De Beers jewel company for 80 years.

The previous record blue diamond sale was achieved last year, when a diamond called the “Blue Moon” sold for nearly $50 million to Hong Kong billionaire Joseph Lau.

Earlier this week, a pink diamond called the Unique Pink sold for a record $32 million for a diamond of its kind, also at the Geneva Sotheby’s auction.

“We’re slowly seeing a market for diamonds going beyond jewelry and becoming an asset,”Ehud Laniado, who sold the Unique Pink, told Bloomberg after the sale.

The Unique Pink sold to an anonymous phone bidder from Asia.