The Mediterranean Blue is going up for auction at Sotheby’s

“The Mediterranean Blue” weighing 10.03 carats will make its auction debut at Sotheby’s High Jewelry sale in Geneva on May 13, estimated to sell for about $20 million. The diamond is classified as Type IIb and its color grade, fancy vivid blue, is the Gemological Institute of America’s (GIA) highest possible color grading for a blue diamond.

The event will take place at the Bassam Freiha Art Foundation, a nonprofit institution located on Saadiyat Island’s Cultural District.  Following the event, the diamond will be showcased in Taipei, Taiwan; Hong Kong; and New York before its exhibition and sale in Geneva in May.

“The Mediterranean Blue represents one of nature’s rarest gems. Any vivid blue diamond is a discovery worth celebrating, but one as entrancing as this, particularly being over 10 carats, is a newsworthy event,” said Quig Bruning, head of Sotheby’s Jewels, Americas, & EMEA. Like its namesake, the Mediterranean Blue is a symbol of nature’s eternal wonders. Its physical beauty, enhanced by the skill of a master cutter, is mesmerizing as is its blue color, so rarely seen.