Blue diamond sells for world record $13.3m

GENEVA (REUTERS) - A flawless deep-blue diamond sold at auction on Wednesday night for 10.27 million Swiss francs (S$13.3 million), a world record for a blue diamond per carat and more than twice its pre-sale estimate, Sotheby's said.

London luxury jeweller Laurence Graff, bidding by telephone, bought the drop-shaped stone which weighs 10.48 carats and is about the size of an almond, it said.

Signed pieces by top designers including Bulgari, Harry Winston, Van Cleef & Arpels fetched strong prices, easily exceeding their estimates, at the semi-annual sales in Geneva.

Applause erupted after Mr David Bennett, head of Sotheby's international jewellery department, brought down the hammer after heated and lengthy bidding on the blue diamond which had been estimated to fetch 3.2 million to 4.2 million francs.