There are high quality diamonds, and then there are diamonds that exist in such a singular category that the common vocabulary of the trade does not apply. The bright, blue-and-blue Ocean Dream, which sold yesterday (May 13) at Christie’s Magnificent Jewels auction in Geneva for $17.3 million, is one of the latest. This 5.51-carat triangular-cut stone has such an unlikely color that, as the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) noted in its materials, some might think it was artificially enhanced.
But the rock’s uniquely catchy color isn’t a quirk of man-made chemistry. Tom Moses, GIA’s senior vice president and chief laboratory and research officer, was involved in the first cut of the Ocean Dream more than 20 years ago and has inspected and edited it several times since then. “Blue diamonds are incredibly rare because their color depends on certain environmental conditions,” he told the Observer. In diamonds like Ocean Dream, the blue-green hue results from exposure to natural radiation near the Earth over millions of years—a geological phenomenon so rare that no other natural diamond of comparable color and size has ever been recorded. In fact, the Ocean Dream is the largest diamond of its kind graded by the GIA since the organization was founded in 1931.
Only a few hundred natural green diamonds exist worldwide; perhaps only 300 green diamonds exceed one carat. Blue and green colored stones are very rare. (The Ocean Paradise Diamond, owned by the Nahshonov Group, is another natural blue-green diamond, but it’s not nearly as deep in color and is only half the carat weight.) These stones are difficult to work with, according to Moses, mainly because of the properties that give them their amazing colors: “The most common radiation doesn’t completely penetrate the cut diamond while making the cut of the diamond safe, making the cut clear, making the cut good. shape, weight and and wisdom.”
In rough shape—11.7 carats, mined in Central Africa in the 1990s—Ocean Dream was acquired by the Cora Diamond Corporation in New York, who commissioned master cutter Mazhar Saylam to shape it into a modified triangular diamond. The stone made its public appearance at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History exhibition, “The Splendor of Diamonds” in 2003, where it was displayed alongside six rare diamonds in the world: Moussaieff Red, De Beers Millennium Star, Pumpkin Diamond, Blue Heart of Eternity, Pink Steinna All yellow diamond. After the exhibition closed, the Ocean Dream disappeared from the public eye, appearing only occasionally in the conversations of collectors.
The surprising result in Geneva is what happens when a unique stone returns to a market that has spent more than a decade remembering it. Christie’s result nearly doubled the $9.8 million it fetched at auction in 2014’s Magnificent Jewels sale, setting a new world record for a blue diamond. “The result at Christie’s shows the continued demand for naturally colored diamonds,” said Moses. “Collectors at this level are looking for gems with good and unique features and stories.”
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