Billionaire Buys World’s Most Expensive Diamond for 7-Year-Old Daughter
A new record for most expensive diamond was set by a 12.03-carat blue diamond sold at auction for $48.4 million. (Photo: Fabrice Coffrin/Getty)
The world’s most expensive diamond was purchased for $48.4 million at auction in Geneva on Wednesday. The recipient? A seven-year-old girl. The Blue Moon diamond weighs in at 12.03 carats and Sotheby’s auctioneer David Bennett identified it as the “highest price per carat” ever obtained for any kind of stone, so the buyer didn’t necessarily get a bang for his buck. Sotheby’s withheld the identity of the winning bidder, who renamed the diamond “Blue Moon of Josephine” upon purchase. The day before, a 16.08-carat pink diamond was purchased by an anonymous bidder at a Christie’s auction in Geneva for $28.5 million, and was named “Sweet Josephine.” That’s one lucky kid.
The anonymous purchaser of the most expensive diamond bought another diamond with a similar name the day before. (Photo: Christie’s)
The auction houses revealed that a “Hong Kong buyer” purchased the diamonds, but their adoptive names let the cat out of the bag. “Yes, the diamonds were bought by Mr. Joseph Lau for his daughter,“ his assistant told CNN. Lau is more of a generous gift giver than a diamond collector: His history of naming diamonds after his daughters Josephine and Zoe is what gave him away. Josephine is adding these diamonds to an already hefty collection, including another blue diamond weighing 7.03 carats that Lau purchased for $9.48 million in 2009 when Josephine was just one year old. 13-year-old daughter Zoe’s diamonds include a 9.75-carat blue diamond named “The Zoe Diamond,” which was purchased for $32.6 million last year, the most for any blue diamond at the time, and “The Zoe Red” a 10.10-carat Cartier brooch featuring a Burmese ruby surrounded by white diamonds for $8.43 million.
Lau’s daughters already have expansive jewelry collections at ages 7 and 13. (Photo: Christie’s)
Lau is the 114th richest person in the world according to Forbes, and his gifting habits surely make a dent in his $9.8 billion fortune. His previous gestures include naming Hong Kong’s tallest retail complex “The ONE” after an ex-girlfriend. Despite Lau’s extensive purchases, the Blue Moon of Josephine, which was discovered in South Africa in January of 2014, is obviously his most generous. The gift claims the title of world’s most expensive diamond, trumping the previous titleholder — the $46.2 million, 24.78-carat Graff Pink, which sold at a Sotheby’s auction in 2010 — by $2.2 million. If Josephine can walk bearing the weight of 31.14 carats and $86.38 million, she’ll definitely wear her gifts with style.
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