Blue Diamond Sells for $6.4

I've got the blues today. In a good way.

Sotheby's Hong Kong unloaded one whopper of a flawless blue diamond today for a mere 6.4 million USD. The rare, 5.16-carat rock was snatched up by London's famed Moussaieff Jewellers, who paid more than the 5.9-million dollar estimated price tag for the gem.

The pear-shaped stone is the first of 11 blue diamonds from the celebrated De Beers Millienium Jewels Collection to appear at auction.

"The price was above the high estimate," a spokeswoman for auction house Sotheby's told AFP.

But the world per-carat record for a blue diamond remains the 10.5 million dollars paid by a Hong Kong property tycoon for a seven-carat blue diamond in Geneva in May last year.

What are they putting in the water in Hong Kong? And can I fill a pool with it?

Sotheby's said gem sales in Hong Kong were on the rise -- the city has overtaken New York to become the company's second biggest market after Geneva.

Terry Chu, deputy head of Sotheby's jewelery department for China and Southeast Asia, said diamonds were particularly appealing to new Asian buyers because of their stable prices and assured quality.

"There have been a lot of new diamond buyers from mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and elsewhere in the region," Chu told AFP.

You had me at "Lei Hao"

Rare Blue Diamond Sets Record!

Colored diamonds are coveted by jewelry lovers everywhere, and despite the economic woe affecting the luxury industry, sales for big, rare stones are still going strong.

While nothing can compare to the world's most expensive blue diamond, The Wittelsbach, which sold to diamond dealer, Laurence Graff, last year for $24.3 million, Sotheby's just unloaded another blue bauble for a stunning $9.4 million.

"The price achieved is a world record by value per carat. This will certainly increase consumers' confidence in buying sparkling stones," said KK Sharma, executive director, Indian Diamond Institute (ID

African miner, Petra Diamonds, unearthed the gem from the Cullinan mine in South Africa, famous for yielding most of the world's best blue diamonds. The fancy vivid blue gem weighs 7.03 carats and is rated internally flawless by the G.I.A. - high praise for a natural stone.

According to the Natural Colored Diamond Association, only one diamond in 10,000 possesses a natural color so strong that it can be classified as fancy color diamond, with reds and blues being the most rare.

Colored diamond fans who don't have millions lying around to snatch a natural stone for their own jewelry box, can find more affordable treated diamonds in every color of the rainbow.

Treated colored diamonds are actually natural white diamonds that are subjected to intense heat to give the stones a range of different hues - from black and pink to yellow and blue. And you don't have to have an auction paddle to snatch one of your very own.

Cure your case of the blues on Jewelry.com, where you can shop for many treated colored diamond styles from the coffers of the retailers you trust.

Then take a look at this video of the real thing. And die a thousand deaths.