This was Once the Most Expensive Jewel Ever Sold at Auction

Up until April of 2017, the famed Oppenheimer blue diamond was the most expensive jewel ever sold at auction. The rectangular cut 14.62 carat blue diamond was the coveted premier lot at the Christie's Magnificent Jewels event in Geneva (2016).



Named after its previous owner Philip Oppenheimer, it's considered as the largest fancy vivid blue diamond ever shown at auction. The stone sold for just a bit over 50 million dollars after two telephone-bidders ended a competitive bidding war for its ownership.

Today fancy blue diamonds are among some of the most trending luxury gemstones chosen for spotlight unveiling at many international auction events. They outrank equivalent-clarity graded colourless diamonds in price per carat many times over due to rarity and exclusivity even among aristocratic collectors.



The Oppenheimer family name is historically linked with the diamond trade's rise to popularity. At one point in time, their family controlled the De Beers Group and its mining operations, which pioneered large-scale South African diamond sourcing and coined the famous tagline- "A diamond is forever".