Art collector Rachel Lambert “Bunny” Mellon’s blue diamond pendant, known as the Mellon Blue, has sold for $25.5 million at Christie’s Magnificent Jewels auction, held at the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues in Geneva.
The price achieved is 22 percent less than what the diamond sold for 11 years ago. Adjusted for inflation, it’s a drop of nearly 60 percent in value.
The 9.51-carat fancy vivid blue, internally flawless pear-shaped diamond, which Christie’s had given a pre-sale estimate of $20–30 million, last sold at auction in 2014 as part of Sotheby’s sale of Mellon’s collection, where it made $32.6 million, more than double its high estimate of $15 million. (Adjusted for inflation that $32.6 million would be around $44.7 million in 2025.)
In a statement after the sale, Rahul Kadakia, president of Christie’s Asia Pacific and chairman of the house’s global luxury group, remarked: “It was a true honour to offer for sale the exquisite Mellon Blue Diamond here at Christie’s Geneva. It was another notable moment for Christie’s Luxury, evidencing the elite appetite amongst collectors for extraordinary and storied gems.”
According to a report in the New York Times at the time of the sale, the pendant sold to an “unidentified Hong Kong collector,” setting the world auction record for a blue diamond as well as a price-per-carat for any diamond.
The world auction record for a blue diamond has since been surpassed. In 2016, Christie’s sold the 14.62-carat Oppenheimer Blue for $57.5 million. In 2022, Sotheby’s sold the 15.10-carat De Beers Cullinan Blue, which also made $57.5 million.
Mellon, who died in 2014 at age 103, was heir to the Listerine fortune; her second husband, Paul Mellon, was an heir to the Mellon banking and oil fortune. At the 2014 Sotheby’s sale of her art collection, two Rothko paintings—Untitled (Yellow, Orange, Yellow, Light Orange), from 1955, and Untitled, from 1970—sold for a total of $76 million.
A little primer on just how rare this type of diamond is, from Julie Brener Davich in an issue of Puck’s “Wall Power” newsletter back in September: “Blue diamonds are exceedingly rare, comprising less than 0.1% of all diamonds. And less than 1% of those can be categorized as fancy vivid.” (ARTnews)
