At the Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels auction in Geneva, a blue diamond sourced from Petra Diamonds’ Cullinan mine, sold at a record price of US$9,488,754m* ( which includes buyer’s premium). Its sale price per carat amounted to US$1,349,752. Petra Diamonds CEO Johan Dippenaar commented: “The price achieved at the Sotheby’s auction for this exquisite, internally flawless blue diamond is a world record by value per carat and the highest price to be achieved by a fancy vivid blue diamond, and reflects how incredibly rare and collectable such an important blue diamond is to the connoisseur.” %% The diamond was a fancy vivid blue, internally flawless, cushion-shaped diamond weighing 7.03 carats. It ranks among the most important diamonds ever to be offered for sale by Sotheby’s. It was cut from a 26.58 carat rough discovered in 2008 at the Cullinan diamond mine and carries a Gemological Institute of America (GIA) grade of being fancy vivid blue in colour and internally flawless in clarity, the highest possible grading for a blue diamond. %% David Bennett, Chairman, Europe & the Middle East, Sotheby’s International Jewellery department, commented after the sale: “ It has been a real privilege to offer a diamond of this importance as the centrepiece of our sale and we have seen it capture the imagination of collectors around the world – particularly in Hong Kong, New York, London and Geneva, where we have exhibited it over the last few weeks. It has also been very exciting and rewarding to work so closely with Petra Diamonds and to follow the progress of this remarkable gem over the last few months; from its emergence in its initial rough state, through its various stages of cutting and polishing, to its auction success on the international stage this evening.” %% Previous to this record, a 3.73 carat fancy vivid blue pear-shaped diamond held the record of selling at the highest price per carat - US$1,328,444 per carat at a Sotheby’s auction in May 2008.