Through its continuous search for the world’s most famous diamonds, Arpege Diamonds came across the exquisitely beautiful Heart of Eternity Diamond. Fancy blue diamonds obtain their stunning blue color through the presence of boron in the crystal structure of the diamond. Often the blue color is modified by gray or black resulting in a grayish blue diamond such as the Hope Blue diamond, others may even appear to be all white due to the unevenness of the blue color. Discovering a stone with intense saturated blue color has become an extreme rarity of Earth, one of which is the Heart of Eternity.
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The Heart of Eternity is a fancy vivid blue diamond in a heart-shaped cut that weighs 27.64 carats and graded as a one with VS2 clarity, meaning 10x magnification would be needed to spot any inclusions otherwise invisible to the naked eye. The Heart of Eternity is among the largest blue diamonds in the world, a list that includes the Hope Blue Diamond, The Wittelsbach, and The Blue Empress.
The diamond was discovered sometime in the 1990’s at the Premier Diamond Mine of South Africa. This mine has produced over 750 stones that weigh more than 100 carats including the Cullinan Diamond, which is known as the largest rough diamond ever unearthed. The Premier Diamond Mine of South Africa remains the only significant source of blue diamonds in the world today; only 0.1% of all diamonds produced in this mine are blue.
Initially, the Heart of Eternity was part of a 777 carats rough stone that was purchased by the De Beers Group at open market for an undisclosed amount. After five months of careful studying and planning by the Steinmetz Group, it was agreed upon to cut the rough stone into three smaller pieces. A process that took nearly three years resulting in one piece being the 27.64 carats Heart of Eternity.
The diamond then became part of a collection of eleven rare blue diamonds that were revealed to the world by the De Beers Group in January 2000 to honor the new millennium. The De Beers Millennium Diamond Collection, was certainly the world's most exclusive and rarest set of diamonds that took several years to put together. The collection was showcased at London's Millennium Dome, which drew millions of spectators creating a media sensation over these exquisite and rare pieces.
The unprecedented rise in demand for blue diamonds with such color, brilliance and rarity has driven prices through the roof making these highly sought after by diamond enthusiasts and investors. The Heart of Eternity has been estimated to be valued at $1 million per carat meaning, if it is ever sold it could fetch nearly $28 million. This gorgeous diamond was last seen for public display in 2003 at the Natural History Museum of the Smithsonian Institution where it was part of the “Splendor of Diamonds” exhibition, which featured eight of the world’s most famous diamonds including the Alnatt and the Moussaieff Red.
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