Well, the real estate world may be struggling a little right now, but it seems that demand for rare diamonds is as strong as ever. Christie’s auction house has just sold the Wittelsbach diamond for the record breaking sum of £16.39 million. ($24.3 million)
Record price reached at auction
The diamond sold for well above the pre sale estimate of £9 million. A Bond Street jeweler, Laurence Graff bought the historic 35.56 carat blue diamond that has been prized by European royals for centuries. Its color and clarity have been compared to the Hope Diamond.
In 1664, King Philip IV of Spain purchased the jewel and included it in the dowry of his teenage daughter, Margaret Teresa. After she died, her husband, Leopold I of Austria, kept the stone. It remained in his family until 1722, when his granddaughter, Maria Amalia married Charles of Bavaria, a member of the Wittelsbach family. Until 1918 the jewel was on the top of the Bavarian crown and was seen last at Ludwig III of Bavaria’s funeral in 1921.
The diamond was lost after World War I, and it resurfaced in 1931, when Christie’s tried to sell the diamond at auction, but it failed to sell. In the 1960s, the Goldmuntz family asked Joseph Komkommer, a jeweler, to re-cut the diamond, but he recognized the historical significance of the stone and refused. Instead he, along with several other dealers, bought it. The diamond had been in a private collection since 1964. There is a rumor that Helmut Horten was one of the owners and that he gave it as a wedding gift to his wife.
Wittelsbach Diamond
35.56 carats
