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LONDON: The Blue Diamond, which was found in South Africa last year and cut from a 26.58 carat rough diamond at the Cullinan mine, fetched a whopping $8.4 million at an auction on Tuesday.

The auction conducted by Sotheby’s for the internally flawless cushion-shaped diamond weighing 7.03 carats from Petra Diamonds’ historic Cullinan mine got the highest price for a fancy vivid blue diamond sold at auction and the record price per carat for any gemstone sold at auction at $1,349,752 — against a pre-sale estimate of $5.8-8.5 million.

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The winning bidder, who wishes to remain anonymous, is yet to exercise their privilege to name the stone.

Commenting on the sale of the fancy vivid blue diamond, David Bennett, Chairman, Europe & the Middle East, Sotheby’s International Jewellery department, said: “We are absolutely thrilled with the price achieved for this exceptional stone, which ranks as the highest price ever established for a fancy vivid blue diamond. It has been a real privilege to offer a diamond of this importance as the centrepiece of our sale and we have seen it capture the imagination of collectors around the world – particularly in Hong Kong, New York, London and Geneva, where we have exhibited it over the last few weeks.”

“It has also been very exciting and rewarding to work so closely with Petra Diamonds and to follow the progress of this remarkable gem over the last few months; from its emergence in its initial rough state, through its various stages of cutting and polishing, to its auction success on the international stage this evening.”

Petra Diamonds CEO Johan Dippenaar commented: “The price achieved at the Sotheby’s auction for this exquisite, internally flawless blue diamond is a world record by value per carat and the highest price to be achieved by a fancy vivid blue diamond, and reflects how incredibly rare and collectable such an important blue diamond is to the connoisseur. The renowned Cullinan mine continues to captivate the world with spectacular diamonds, building on its legacy as the source of some of the world’s most famous gems. This has been a very successful partnership with Sotheby’s, one of the pre-eminent names in jewellery sales, and has provided the perfect platform to garner international recognition for a gem of this calibre.”

The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) has graded the blue diamond as flawless in clarity, the highest ranking it can give to a diamond. The scarcity of the gems is in part down to the fact so few places in the world mine for blue diamonds.

In May 2008 a 3.73 carat diamond was sold by Sotheby’s at auction for nearly $5m setting the world record price per carat for any gemstone at auction.