A pear-shaped blue diamond, from De Beers Millennium Collection, that was targeted in a raid at the Millennium Dome, has been sold for more than 4million pounds at a Hong Kong auction.
The rock, which had been expected to fetch 3million to 3.8million at Sotheby's, was ultimately purchased for 4,221,533pounds.
The diamond is one among the 12 that De Beers put together for the turn of the millennium, and was showcased at London's Dome (now the O2 arena) in 2000.
"There have been a lot of new diamond buyers from mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and elsewhere in the region," the Telegraph quoted Terry Chu, deputy head of Sotheby's jewellery department for China and South-east Asia, as saying.
Chu added, "I think after the financial crisis, the Asian buyers realised that the prices of diamond are relatively stable compared to other types of auction items."
