World's largest blue diamond sold in Hong Kong

The bright blue diamond sold to an unnamed buyer at Sotheby's in Hong Kong for HK$450.9 million (US$57.5 million).

The 15.1-carat (3.02 gram) gem, dubbed The De Beers Blue, is the largest diamond of its color ever to be auctioned, Bloomberg reports.

The 39.3 carat (7.86 grams) diamond from which the diamond was obtained was mined in April 2021 at the Cullinan Mine in northeast South Africa. In July, South African miner Petra Diamonds sold the stone for more than $40 million to a joint venture between De Beers and Diacore.

The Cullinan mine is famous for the fact that in 1905 the world's largest diamond was mined weighing 3,106 carats (621.35 grams), known as the Cullinan and the Star of Africa. The white-blue stone of exceptional purity was divided into nine parts. The largest diamond from this batch, Cullinan-1, adorns the British royal scepter, which is kept in the Tower of London.