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‘Blue Belle’ rings in record sale for Christie’s
Christie’s recent Magnificent Jewels sale set a new world record for a jewelry auction at $150.2 million, led by a 392.52-carat sapphire that was a record-setter itself.
The “Blue Belle of Asia,” weighing 392.52 carats, set a new world record price for a sapphire when it sold for $17.5 million, leading Christie’s to its highest jewelry auction total ever.
Geneva--Christie’s recent Magnificent Jewels sale set a new world record for a jewelry auction at $150.2 million, led by a 392.52-carat sapphire that was a record-setter itself.
Called the “Blue Belle of Asia” and set in a diamond necklace, the cushion-cut Ceylon sapphire realized $17.3 million, or $44,063 per carat. Its sale established a new world record price for a sapphire at auction.
Top lots of the sale also included a pair of fancy vivid pink and fancy vivid blue diamond ear pendants purchased by Laurence Graff of Graff Diamonds for $15.8 million; a kite-shaped brilliant-cut fancy pink VS2 diamond that sold for $6.1 million; and an oval-shaped Burmese ruby weighing 23.66 carats set in a ring by Cartier that garnered $6 million.
Other lots rounding out the top 10 were an Art Deco natural pearl and diamond necklace, a necklace with five yellow cushion-cut diamonds, a gold, diamond and green garnet “Parrot Tulip” bangle by JAR, and a pair of natural pearl and diamond ear pendants.
The sale was 89 percent sold by lot and 94 percent sold by value.
The total of the Magnificent Jewels sale, combined with those of the Patek Philippe 175 and the Important Watches sale, closed Christie’s 2014 fall sale week with a grand total of $185 million, the highest since the first Christie’s auction in Geneva in 1969, the action house said.
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