- Hong Kong billionaire Joseph Lau purchased both the diamonds at auction
- He spent £50million over two days at the Christie's and Sotheby's sales
- Both diamonds were then renamed after his daughter, 7, and gifted to her
- The pink diamond, graded the elite 'vivid fancy' was bought for £18million
- One day later, he smashed records by purchasing a rare blue diamond
- The massive £32million rock became the most expensive jewel ever sold
If diamonds are a girl's best friend then Josephine Lau is a very popular young lady.
Her
Hong Kong businessman father has just splashed out £50million on two
recording-breaking diamonds - and gifted both of them to his little
princess.
Joseph
Lau's office confirmed this week that the real estate investor - worth
an estimated £6.5billion - went on the extraordinary spending spree over
two days at back-to-back jewellery auctions in Geneva.
It
also confirmed that the two eye-popping diamonds were both presents for
his seven-year-old daughter and that he renamed them 'The Sweet
Josephine' and 'The Blue Moon of Josephine' in her honor.
But
perhaps even more fortunate for Josephine is that her father remains a
free man after being convicted of corruption in a Macau court last year
and sentenced to more than five years - a punishment he has swerved by
avoiding travel to the former Portuguese colony.
Ranked by Forbes as the 114th richest
man in the world, Joseph Lau is famous for his big spending and has
splashed out to the tune of £50million on lucky seven-year-old daughter
Josephine (both pictured in 2012)
Diamonds are Josephine's best friends:
Daddy and daughter smile for the camera three years ago. No doubt
Josephine will be smiling even more now that she's got the best bling in
the playground
Joseph Lau
(pictured), a billionaire Hong Kong real estate investor, spent
£50million on the two record-breaking diamonds this week at back-to-back
auctions in Geneva
Josephine
(pictured left and right) appears to be a big fan of child singing
sensation Connie Talbot. Connie, from the West Midlands, rose to fame in
2007 when she reached the final of the first series of Britain's Got
Talent show. The pair are seen here during Connie's World Asia Tour in
2014
The large blue
diamond (pictured) became the most expensive piece of jewellery ever
sold after Lau bought it for £32million and promptly renamed it 'The
Blue Moon of Josephine' after his seven-year-old daughter
The previous day, Lau had purchased
this rare pink diamond for £18million. It too was a gift to his daughter
which he renamed 'The Sweet Josephine' in her honor
Josephine is his daughter with girlfriend and former aid Chan Hoi-wan, according to local media.
Ranked by Forbes as the world's 114th richest man, Lau, 64, also has two children with long-time partner Yvonne Lui.
And
it's not the first time Josephine has been on the receiving end of her
father's generosity. At a Sotheby's Geneva auction In 2009, Lau bought
another blue diamond, paying a then-record £13million for the 7.03 carat
which he promptly named 'Star of Josephine'.
He
bought the first diamond, a rare pink stone weighing 16.08-carats
and graded vivid fancy pink, for a record price of £18m after a bidding
war at a Christie's auction.
It was the largest and most expensive diamond classed in the elite 'fancy vivid' category to ever go to auction.
The
following day his team then crossed town to rival auctioneers Sotheby's
with their sights on the 12.03-carat 'Blue Moon' diamond - possibly the
largest known blue fancy vivid diamond ever found.
Discovered
in South Africa last year, Lau smashed world records for the gemstone
by paying £32million after a tense 30-bid auction lasting eight minutes.
Described
by experts as 'internally flawless', it is the most expensive diamond
of any colour and most expensive jewel ever sold.
The
Blue Moon - so-called in reference to its rarity, playing off the
expression 'once in a blue moon' - topped the previous record of $46.2
million set five years ago by the Graff Pink, Sotheby's said.
The
diamond also set a new record of more than $4 million per carat,
capping the daylong high-end jewelry sale that reaped roughly $140
million.
Joseph Lau is pictured here in 2014
leaving a restaurant with girlfriend and mother of Josephine, Chan
Hoi-wan. Lau is a property developer who was convicted in 2014 at a
Macau court on corruption charges and sentenced to more than five years.
He has remained free by avoiding travel to the former Portuguese colony
Number One
Fan: Josephine's dreams come true during Connie Talbot's 2014 tour as
she sang with and posed alongside her idol. Part of the young British
singing sensation's tour was hosted at the Windsor shopping mall in Hong
Kong, owned by Josephine's father Joseph
The 12.03 carat gemstone, dubbed The
Blue Moon Diamond, was bought after a tense eight-minute showdown in
Geneva, with a total of 30 bids
It was given the highest possible
grading, Fancy Vivid Blue, after being declared internally flawless by
the Gemological Institute of America
The 64-year old is a self-made millionaire who built up an astonishing property empire as the owner of Chinese Estates.
Ranked as the 6th richest person in Hong Kong, he is famous for his lavish spending.
He
is among one of the first people to own a Boeing 787 Dreamliner for
private use, is said to have a red wine collection of comprising 10,000
bottles and regularly pays eye-watering amounts of money for rare pieces
of art.
Lau and his girlfriend Chan Hoi-wan are pictured here leaving a restaurant in Hong Kong last year
Lau bought the first diamond, a rare
pink stone (pictured) weighing 16.08-carats and graded vivid fancy pink,
for a record price of £18m after a bidding war at a Christie's auction
The diamond is believed to be the most expensive pink diamond of the elite 'vivid fancy' category ever sold
David
Bennett, the auctioneer, said: 'Tonight we set a new world record, a
new auction record for any diamond, any jewel, any gemstone, with the
sale of the Blue Moon Diamond.
'For
me, the blue moon was always the blue diamond of my career. I have
never seen a more beautiful stone. The shape, the color, the purity -
it's a magical stone.'
The
polished blue gem was cut from a 29.6-carat diamond discovered last
year in South Africa's Cullinan mine, which also yielded the 530-carat
Star of Africa blue diamond that is part of the British crown jewels,
and the Smithsonian Institution's 'Blue Heart' discovered in 1908.
Then
a 29.62-carat rough diamond, it was bought by New York-based Cora
International which spent six months cutting and polishing the Blue
Moon.
Sotheby's
says experts took five months for an 'intense study' of the original
Blue Moon diamond, and a master cutter took another three months to
craft, cut and polish the stone.
The
auction house said in a video that the Cullinan mine was the 'only
reliable source in the world for blue diamonds,' and only a tiny
percentage of those found in it contain even a trace of blue.
