Diamond and scroll break auction records
HONG KONG // A rare blue diamond set a record at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong yesterday after fetching HK$ 248.29 million ( Dh117.6m), despite a slowdown in China’s economy that affected the auction market. The “De Beers Millennium Jewel 4”, a 10.10-carat vivid blue diamond, broke the record for the most expensive piece of jewellery sold at auction in Asia, but at the lower end of estimates, which predicted it could fetch up to HK$271m.
Slightly larger than an almond, it is described by Sotheby’s as the largest oval blue diamond yet to appear at auction and “internally flawless”. It was sold to an anonymous phone bidder.
“It was a very successful sale,” said Sotheby’s international jewellery division worldwide chairman, David Bennett.
“The fact that it’s a record price for jewellery in Asia I think speaks well about the Asian market ... I think it’s alive and well and very healthy.”
The sale came hours after a scroll painting by Chinese master Zhang Daqian sold for a record- breaking HK$ 270.68m , also at Sotheby’s.
It was bought by Chinese collector Liu Yiqian’s Shanghai museum – the latest in a string of massive buys associated with the former taxi driver-turnedtycoon. Zhang’s splashed ink and colour scroll outstripped the top- end pre- sale estimate of HK$65m, breaking the record for the artist’s work at auction. A buyer from Mr Liu’s Long Museum ended hour-long bidding for the work, entitled Peach Blossom Spring, with more than 100 bids cast.