courtesy christies
The "Aurora Green" is the largest Fancy Vivid green diamond ever sold at auction. The stone went under the hammer on May 31, 2016 at Christie's auction house in Hong Kong, selling for $16,818,983.
Christies Images Ltd 2016
The world's largest blue diamond, an extremely rare gem known as "The Oppenheimer Blue", sold for $57.5 million at Christie's Geneva May 18, 2016, making it the most expensive diamond ever sold at auction.
Christies Images Ltd 2016
The 14.62 carat Fancy Vivid stone is mounted on a platinum ring and flanked on either side by a trapeze-shaped diamond.
courtesy sotheby's
'The Unique Pink' is the largest Fancy Vivid pink pear-shaped diamond to ever be offered at auction.
courtesy sotheby's
The diamond was sold for $31.6 million by Sotheby's, at an auction in Geneva. The price makes it the most expensive Fancy Vivid pink diamond to sell at auction.
Bloomberg/Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Cubic zirconia replicas of the original and a modern cut of the Kohinoor diamond, one of the oldest and most famous diamonds in the world.
CNN
The De Beers Millennium Jewel 4 has broken auction records in Asia.
courtesy sotheby's
The stone sold for $31.8 million, which makes it the most expensive piece of jewelry sold at an auction in Asia.
Sotheby's
Sotheby's auctioned this 9.54 carat ring it says belonged to child star Shirley Temple on April 19, 2016. Though it was expected to fetch between $25 million and $35 million, it failed to sell.
FABRICE COFFRINI/Getty Images
This 12.03-carat blue diamond fetched $48.4 million at auction on November 11, 2015. It was previously the world's most expensive price-per-carat diamond sold.
FABRICE COFFRINI/Getty Images
The fancy, vivid blue diamond was discovered in South Africa in January last year.
EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images
In recent years, other high-value diamonds have hit the auction block. The 59.60-carat oval cut pink diamond known as "The Pink Star," went for $80 million at a 2013 Sotheby's auction. However, after the buyer defaulted on payment, it was returned to Sotheby's.
Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images Europe/Getty Images
This 118.28 oval white diamond became the largest sold at auction when it went for $30.6 million at a Sotheby's auction in 2013.
Courtesy Sotheby's
In April 2015, a 100-carat, emerald cut, D color, internally flawless diamond -- the largest of its clarity and cut to ever be shown at auction -- sold for $22 million.
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images
The 76.02-carat 400-year-old Archduke Joseph diamond set a new record for price per carat for a colorless diamond in 2012, when it sold for $21.5 million at a Christie's auction.
Courtesy Chow Tai Fook
In 2010, Hong Kong's largest jewelry retailer, Chow Tai Fook, bought one of the world's largest rough diamonds for $35.3 million.
Courtesy Chow Tai Fook
Jeweler Wallace Chan and a team of craftsman worked 47,000 hours to transform the stone it into this piece, which Chai Tai Fook estimates could be worth $200 million.

Story highlights

A rare blue diamond has been auctioned in Hong Kong

The 10.10 carat gem sold for $31.8 million

It is the most expensive gemstone to be sold at auction in Asia

CNN  — 

A rare blue diamond has gone up for sale and smashed auction records in Asia.

The 10.10 carat rock, named the De Beers Millennium Jewel 4, is the largest oval-shaped, fancy vivid blue diamond to ever appear at auction world.

Billed by Sotheby’s as “yet another wonderful collecting opportunity for connoisseurs worldwide”, it has sold for $31.8 million – which makes it the most expensive gemstone to be sold at an auction in Asia.

Blue Moon

Blue diamonds are considered to be one of the rarest of gems, making up just a small percentage of all diamonds harvested worldwide.

Billionaire buys world's most expensive diamond

01:44 - Source: CNN
Rare blue diamond smashes Asia auction records

But while this blue beauty has broken all records for sales of the gem in Asia, its value still falls short of the world’s most expensive diamond.

That title went to the 12.03 carat “Blue Moon” diamond, sold in Geneva, Switzerland, to a Hong Kong billionaire for his seven-year-old daughter in November 2015 for $48.4million.

Magnificent jewels

The ‘De Beers Millennium Jewel 4’ went on auction as part of a 270 lot ‘Magnificent Jewels and Jadeite’, sale by auction house Sotheby’s on April 5 in Hong Kong.

01:43 - Source: KTVI
12-carat diamond rings lost in 8 tons of trash

The auction included some of the world’s rarest colored diamonds.

It currently holds an estimated combined value of over $96 million.

April could be a busy month for blue diamond sales, with a blue diamond ring once owned by Shirley Temple also up for auction by Sotheby’s just a few days later in the U.S.