A claw-set with a fancy intense blue cushion-shaped diamond weighing 7.64 carats, mounted in yellow gold and platinum, saw competition from at least three potential buyers before selling to an anonymous client for $8,034,503 at a Sotheby’s auction in Geneva.

The sale of the diamond, which had an estimate of between $4-6 million, sets a new record price of $1,051,636 per for carat for a fancy intense blue diamond sold at auction. Sotheby's established the current world record price per carat at auction (USD $796,178) for a fancy intense blue diamond in November 2009 in Geneva with the sale of a 3.17 carat round brilliant-cut stone.

According to Sotheby’s records, this was the largest cushion shaped stone of this color grading ever to appear at auction.

A GIA report states that the diamond is Fancy Intense Blue, Natural Colour, VVS2 Clarity, and comes together with an additional GIA worksheet stating that the diamond may be Potentially Flawless after repolishing.

Sotheby’s Spring Sales of Magnificent and Noble Jewels brought a total of $53,976,331, a figure well above pre-sale expectations of $32.4-46 million.

The sales sessions saw lively and competitive bidding across the board for top-quality jewels at all price levels - be it important colored stones, white diamonds, glamorous signed pieces or jewels with historic and noble provenance. The overall sell through rates reached 88% by lot and 97% by value, with more than 74% of the lots sold achieving prices in excess of their high estimate.

“Today’s outstanding results once again demonstrate the vibrancy and depth of the international jewelry market and the enormous appetite throughout the world for jewels and gemstones of the very best quality. Our pre-sale viewing in Geneva was among the busiest that we’ve staged in recent years and, the general interest and enthusiasm that we saw in all the worldwide locations where we exhibited highlights from the sale was extraordinary. The prices achieved tonight for the two blue diamonds and also the spectacular 52.82-carat white diamond were much deserved, as these were all gems of the highest quality and rarity and it was also heartening to see our fourth dedicated sale of Noble Jewels perform so well once again, exceeding the pre-sale estimate by a large margin. We are absolutely delighted with the results of today’s sales, which have performed superbly well in every category,” says David Bennett, Chairman, Europe & the Middle East, Sotheby’s International Jewellery department.