Rare blue diamond sells for $6.7m

A uncommon blue diamond that has spent the past 300 years in Europe’s royal homes has been sold at public sale in Geneva for $6.7m (£5m).

The Farnese Blue modified into as soon as given as a wedding recent to Elizabeth Farnese, daughter of the Duke of Parma, when she married Philip V of Spain in 1715.

It then handed down thru the generations, transferring from Spain to France, Italy and Austria.

The 6.1 carat diamond comes from the neatly-known Golconda mine of India.

It sold after exact four minutes of bidding at Sotheby’s, with out effort passing the public sale house’s estimate of $3.5m-$5m.

« We had been attempting ahead to a appropriate consequence but we started from $3.5m and we ended up with $6.7m, so we exceeded our expectation, » said Sotheby’s jewellery specialist, Daniela Mascetti.

« Factual jewels, correctly-designed, correctly-made, with a signature, with a ideal… slot in time, in age, dwell very correctly. »

Essentially based on the auctioneers’ web page, the pear-formed diamond as soon as formed portion of a tiara owned by the in miserable health-fated French Queen Marie Antoinette.

The id of the recent proprietor has now not been published.