The 15.10-carat step-cut De Beers Cullinan Blue diamond will go up on the auction block in Hong Kong in April. Image Courtesy: Sotheby’s

If you have $50 million lying around, you have a chance to be the proud owner of one of the most valuable blue diamonds in the world.

Named ‘The De Beers Cullinan Blue’, it is the biggest vivid blue diamond to be put up for auction. The Sotheby’s auction will be held on 27 April in Hong Kong.

Here’s why this gem is valued so highly:

Size, cut of the ‘De Beers Cullinan Blue’

‘The De Beers Cullinan Blue’ was found in the Cullinan mine, South Africa, in 2021, and, according to the standards that coloured diamonds are judged by, has attained the highest ranking.

The rough blue diamond (which weighed nearly 40 carats) was purchased for $40 million jointly by De Beers and the Diacore diamond cutting operation.

Diacore’s master cutters then spent nearly a year faceting and polishing the stone into a flawless 15.10-carat step-cut diamond.

It was graded as vivid blue by the Gemological Institute of America {GIA}, the highest possible grade for coloured diamonds, which has been awarded to no more than 1 per cent of blue diamonds.

For those wondering what makes a blue diamond blue, it’s a fabulous fluke of nature. Scientifically speaking, trace amounts of the rare element boron are within the diamond crystal lattice.

Another interesting aspect of this diamond that makes it highly valuable is the way in which it has been cut. Experts say that the flat surface on the top of the gem and the long facets of the step cut don’t bounce a lot of light around, which helps prove the intensity of the natural colour.

A woman holds up the ‘Oppenheimer Blue,’ a rare fancy vivid blue diamond weighing 14.62 carat. AFP

Other blue diamonds auctioned

Blue diamonds of any kind are rare on the market and have always sold for astronomical figures when placed on the auction block.

They were first recorded by Jean Baptiste Tavernier in the mid-17th Century when he purchased a blue diamond in the Golconda region of India. In 1668, he sold it to King Louis XIV of France, who named it the French Blue, and over the years, it was sold, stolen, and passed through several hands.

As of date, it is the world’s most famous blue diamond — the Hope Diamond, a 45.52-carat fancy-dark grayish-blue stone. It is currently on display at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC.

In 2015, Sotheby’s Geneva auctioned off the ‘Blue Moon of Josephine’, a 12.03 carat blue diamond, for $48.4 million.

In May 2016, Christie’s auction house in Geneva broke records when it auctioned The Oppenheimer Blue diamond. A 14.62 carat-diamond, it sold for $57.5 million.

At Sotheby’s New York sale in 2014, the Zoe Diamond sold for $32.6 million.

With inputs from agencies

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