(toskanews) – Christie’s auction house will put the Mellon Bluea 9.51-carat vivid blue diamond, valued at between $20 and $30 million. The stone, set in a ring, is considered among the purest and rarest colored diamonds ever to appear on the market.

Max Fawcett, director of the jewelery department at Christie’s: «Finding a stone of almost ten carats with this exceptional shape, such an imposing size and such an intense blue is something extremely rare. And it excites us a lot.”

The diamond once belonged to Rachel “Bunny” Mellon, a famous philanthropist and designer of the White House gardens in the 1960s. «It was probably purchased in the 1960s or 1970s. It was the most important diamond in his collection.”

First sold in 2014 for $32.6 million, the Mellon Blue returns to the market now, at a time when superior quality blue stones are increasingly rare.

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