Blue Diamond Sells for $14M at Sotheby's

RAPAPORT... Sotheby's brought in a total of HKD 315.2 million ($40.2 million) at its Hong Kong auction Wednesday as a 5-carat blue diamond fetched $13.8 million. The price of the step-cut, fancy-vivid blue, named the Aidiamond, after the Chinese word for love, fell within its estimate of $12.5million to $15.3 million. The final selling price translated to $2.8 millionper carat. Another blue diamond - a pear-shaped, fancy-intense blueweighing 3.47 carats - sold for $3.1 million at the Magnificent Jewels andJadeite auction against a pre-sale estimate of $2.7 million to $3.6 million. Astep-cut, 18.45-carat, D-color, VVS2-clarity diamond ring fetched $2.3 million,smashing its estimate of $1.3 million to $1.7 million. However, only one piece out of a collection of jewels by designer Wallace Chan found a buyer: a pair of jade anddiamond earrings, estimated at $70,160 to $108,430, which went for $87,700. Several jewels by Harry Winston, Van Cleef & Arpels andCartier also sold at the auction. Sotheby's sold 65% of all lots on offer, it said. Image: The Ai diamond. (Sotheby's)