Image credit: greaterkashmir.com
Sri Lanka is looking to sell ‘Queen of Asia’, its 310-kg blue sapphire, if the buyer pays over $100 mn, as per media reports.
The natural corundum of 1,550,000 carats of blue sapphire was found from private land in Sri Lanka's Ratnapura locality in July 2021.
A Dubai firm has reportedly offered $100 mn but Sri Lanka is looking at a higher price for it. State Minister of Gem and Jewellery Related Industries Lohan Ratwatte, the report said no final decision has been taken by the Sri Lankan government yet on the offer. Ratwatte also said there are discussions underway on whether to auction the corundum sapphire at an even higher price.
Chamila Suranga Pannilaarachchi, the president of the Gemological Institute of Ratnapura, has revealed that a French gem scientist had valued the blue sapphire at more than $200 mn. The world's largest star sapphire cluster was “accidentally” discovered in the backyard of a gem trader when workmen were digging a well, BBC reported in July. "I have never seen such a large specimen before. This was probably formed around 400 million years ago," the report quoted Dr Gamini Zoysa, a renowned gemologist, as saying.
It was reported last month that the stone had attracted interest from potential buyers in the United States and China too. The sapphire found from private land in Ratnapura is currently in the custody of the Sri Lanka National Gem and Jewelry Authority, which has stored it in its laboratory.
Aruna Gaitonde, Editor in Chief of the Asian Bureau, Rough&Polished
