FLOAT

The Oppenheimer Blue

Year
sold 2016
Rank
3 of 100

The Oppenheimer Blue

The Oppenheimer Blue (sold 2016) is ranked 3 in the FLOAT 100 for Jewelry. It sold for $57,500,000 on 18 May 2016. Set the world auction record for any jewel at the time; the defining named blue diamond.

What is it, and why is it in the FLOAT 100?

Set the world auction record for any jewel at the time; the defining named blue diamond.

14.62 ct rectangular-cut Fancy Vivid Blue; ex-Philip Oppenheimer (De Beers)

What is the best-sourced number for it?

Figure
$57,500,000
Kind
Realized at auction
Date
18 May 2016

Christie's Geneva; $57.5M, then a world record for any jewel at auction. 25-minute bidding war.

This is a realized sale. Somebody paid it. Source.

How this is made

The figure
One reference price, taken from a named public source and shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
Realized or not
A realized price is a completed sale. A market asking price and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
Why no grade ladder
Most FLOAT 100 entries are individual objects. There is one of this, so there is no population and no spread across grades to show.
Archive
2026-08-08