This 23.24-Carat Blue Diamond Will Be the Largest Ever Sold at Auction

Christie’s has announced what is sure to be a blockbuster sale in the world: the sale of a 23.24-carat fancy Golconda . It is the largest of its kind to ever be offered at auction and has a jaw-dropping estimate of $35 to $50 million. The diamond hit the block in Geneva on May 14th at the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues for the Magnificent Jewels sale.

The monster blue once belonged to Yeshwant Roa Holkar, the dashing Maharaja of Indore, and his equally glamourous wife, Krishna Bai Holkar, the Maharani of Indore—both veritable style icons of the ’20s and ’30s. In 1923, the Maharaja took the stone to Paris to have Chaumet mount it in a diamond bracelet. A decade later, he appointed Mauboussin as his official jeweler and had the stone remounted in a necklace worn by his wife and memorialized in the portrait below. The diamond was later purchased by , “the king of diamonds,” in 1947. The jeweler later reset it again, this time in a brooch with a matching 23-carat white diamond, which he sold to the Maharaja of Baroda. Winston eventually repurchased the piece and sold it in the brooch to its current owner.

Upping the ante of the value of the stone, is its new setting. The extremely precious stone comes perched in a diamond-accented ring setting by famed modern independent jeweler, JAR, making its provenance skyrocket further. The Parisian jeweler is notoriously private, makes pieces selectively, and is therefore difficult to acquire.

Stones like this don’t pop up for open sale often. This is the first time this Golconda blue will be offered publicly. “Exceptional noble gems of this caliber come to market once in a lifetime,” says Rahul Kadakia, Christie’s international head of jewelry, in a press statement. “Christie’s has had the honor of offering some of the world’s most important Golconda diamonds, including the Archduke Joseph, the Princie, and the Wittelsbach. With its royal heritage, extraordinary color, and exceptional size, the Golconda Blue is truly one of the rarest blue diamonds in the world.” By comparison, the 35.56-carat fancy deep grayish-blue Wittelsbach sold for $24.3 million in 2008, the 76.02-carat D-color, internally flawless Archduke Joseph hammered for $21.5 million in 2012, and the 34.65-carat Fancy Intense pink Princie sold for over $39.3 million in 2013. The previous record-holder for the most expensive blue diamond to sell at auction was the 15.10-carat Fancy Vivid , which sold for $57.5 million at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong in April 2022.