Mellon Blue diamond ring sells for $32.5m in Geneva auction
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The ring, with a flawless 9.51 carat pear-shaped diamond, previously belonged to philanthropist Rachel “Bunny” Mellon, a friend of late US first lady Jacqueline Kennedy.
PHOTO: AFP
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- The "Mellon Blue", a 9.51-carat vivid blue diamond, previously owned by Rachel "Bunny" Mellon, sold for US$25 million in Geneva.
- The Mellon Blue, once a pendant, was sold for US$32.6 million in 2014 after Mellon's death, a record at the time for coloured diamonds.
- While significant, the price didn't break the world record for a blue diamond, held by the "Oppenheimer Blue" at over US$57 million.
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GENEVA - A vivid blue diamond weighing 9.51 carats and previously belonging to Rachel “Bunny” Mellon, the aristocratic philanthropist and a close friend of the late US first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, sold in Geneva for US$25 million (S$32.5 million), said Christie’s auction house on Nov 11.
The internally flawless pear-shaped diamond mounted at the tip of a swirling ring design is named “Mellon Blue”, after its former owner who had it set as a pendant. It sold for US$32.6 million in 2014, the year Ms Mellon died at the age of 103.
That was the highest price at the time ever paid for a coloured diamond at auction, Christie’s said. But the world record for a blue diamond is the “Oppenheimer Blue”, which sold for over US$57 million in Geneva in 2016.
Ms Mellon, an avid, self-taught horticulturalist, came from a wealthy background and married into the Mellon banking family.
One of her legacies was a redesign of the White House Rose Garden during the Kennedy administration, which US President Donald Trump again renovated in 2025. REUTERS
