The Tereschenko Blue Diamond

By Author: Zarfati Irani
Total Articles: 6
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The Tereschenko Blue Diamond is the second-largest blue diamond in the world, exceeded in size only by the famed Hope Diamond. The Tereschenko, whose color is graded "Fancy Blue," weighs 42.92 carats and carries a value of over $20 million.

The precise location where the Tereschenko Blue Diamond was mined and the date it was recovered are unknown. However, current knowledge of the diamond has narrowed the mines that could have produced it down to two: the Kollur mines in India, or South Africa's Premier diamond mine, both of which have produced noted blue diamonds.

However, since the Premier diamond mine started operations in 1902, and no record exists of any noted blue diamond being recovered in its early years, it would seem that India's Golconda region is a more likely source. If that is the case, the Tereschenko Blue Diamond could have been mined at almost time dating from the mid-16h century.

Like the diamond's origin, its early history remains obfuscated and the stone can only be traced with accuracy from the time the Tereschenko family bought it. Mikhail Ivanovich Tereschenko left the diamond ...
... at Cartier's in Paris in 1913 and in 1915 told the jeweler to set the blue diamond in a necklace, surrounded by other fancy diamonds. Cartier constructed a necklace consisting of 46 diamonds of various colors, shapes, and sizes, which was taken out of Russia in secret in 1916.

Mikhail Ivanovich, who was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in May 1917, was arrested during the October Revolution and imprisoned. He escaped in 1918 and fled to Norway, eventually making his way to Paris, where he recovered the necklace and sold the Blue Diamond.

For many decades, the Tereschenko Blue Diamond remained out of the public eye. But in 1984, Christie's Geneva branch announced that it would be selling the diamond. Several diamond dealers requested that the stone up for auction receive proper certification, which were accomplished through the Gemological Institute of America.

Bidding for the blue diamond began at 3 million Swiss francs and was sold for 10 million to Robert Mouawad, a Lebanese diamond dealer known for his collection of famous diamonds.

According to some sources, after the Mouawad bought
the diamond its name was changed from the Tereschenko Blue to the Mouawad Blue.

The Tereschenko or Mouawad Blue Diamond received its unusual hue through exposure to boron while it was being formed. Natural blue diamonds account for only 0.1% of all natural diamonds, and are unique among colored diamonds in that they are semi-conductors of electricity. Irradiation can induce a blue tint into a colorless diamond, but artificially colored diamonds are considered less valuable than the very rare natural colored diamonds.

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