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QING DYNASTY TREASURE: This white jade seal was sold for a record-breaking $8.8 million. -- PHOTO: AP
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HONG KONG - ONE of the rarest gems in the world, a flawless blue diamond, has fetched US$7.98 million (S$11.8 million) at a Sotheby's auction in Hong Kong.
That made it the most expensive gemstone in the world, per carat, sold at an auction.
After intense bidding, the 6.04-carat emerald-cut blue diamond fetched US$1.32 million per carat.
The price smashed a 20-year-old record held by the 'Hancock Red' - a red diamond which fetched US$926,000 per carat at the time, Sotheby's said.
According to Sotheby's, the new buyer is Moussaieff Jewellers in London, which has a reputation for acquiring extremely rare and costly gemstones. The seller is a private Asian collector.
Sotheby's sale of Chinese treasures - looted from Qing palaces by foreign troops - yesterday also fetched record prices, given gritty bidding by buyers from the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan looking to repatriate such objects from the West.
A white jade seal which the Qianlong Emperor carved in 1796 to mark his abdication was the most expensive lot, going for HK$46.2 million (S$8.8 million).
It broke the record for any Chinese white jade or imperial seal ever sold at an auction.
REUTERS, BLOOMBERG
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