AUCTION – Laguna Blu achieves highest price for any Bulgari jewel, in excess of $25 million

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GENEVA – The 11.16 carat Laguna Blu, an exquisite rare fancy vivid blue diamond ring, the top lot in the Sotheby’s May 16 Magnificent Jewels sale, achieved USD $25.2 million, the highest ever value for a Bulgari jewel offered for sale, the auction house said.

AUCTION – Laguna Blu achieves highest price for any Bulgari jewel, in excess of $25 million

Picture courtesy of Sotheby’s

The Bulgari Laguna Blu was auctioned last in the second session of the Magnificent Jewels and Noble Jewels, after a string of spectacular sales of signed jewels and exceptional gemstones. After a four-minute bidding battle between three telephone bidders and one bidder in the room, it eventually found a buyer on the phone.

Coloured gemstones – and signed coloured jewels especially – had an exceptional evening with nearly a quarter of all lots sold featuring them selling way above their high estimates – led by sales of jewellery featuring rubies, emeralds, sapphires as well as yellow and pink diamonds.

The Bulgari Laguna Blu – Overview

The Bulgari Laguna Blu is a gemstone like no other, boasting an exceptional colour saturation and a vibrant oceanic blue, with provenance from a Distinguished European Collection.

Created in 1970 by Bulgari as a ring – at a time when Bulgari was undergoing some of its most significant transformations and emerging as the most influential and innovative Italian high jewellery house in the world – the Bulgari Laguna Blu is a rarity three times over – it’s an 11.16 carat Fancy Vivid blue diamond, among the rarest gemstones on earth; it is a jewel signed by Bulgari; and it is unmodified which means that its current cut – produced in 1970, could be further improved with modern cutting methods to release its full gemstone potential.