--- title: Billionaire Buys His Daughter Most Expensive Diamond Ever description: The Hong Kong billionaire paid a record-making $48.5 million to give the 'Blue Moon' diamond to his 7 year old. canonical: https://time.com/4110728/billionaire-joseph-lau-blue-moon-diamond/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-12T20:22:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:26:55.360Z og:title: Billionaire Buys His Daughter Most Expensive Diamond Ever og:description: Hong Kong billionaire paid $48.5 million to give the diamond to his 7 year old og:url: https://time.com/4110728/billionaire-joseph-lau-blue-moon-diamond/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfaaf9a45cc64da7b/698870a60b72e37f186e6c6a/blue-moon-diamond.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: SWITZERLAND-LUXURY-JEWELLERY-AUCTION-DIAMOND-FILES og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Billionaire Buys His Daughter Most Expensive Diamond Ever twitter:description: Hong Kong billionaire paid $48.5 million to give the diamond to his 7 year old twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfaaf9a45cc64da7b/698870a60b72e37f186e6c6a/blue-moon-diamond.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Billionaire Buys 7-Year-Old Daughter Most Expensive Diamond Ever by [Laura Lorenzetti / Fortune](https://time.com/author/fortune/) ## Laura Lorenzetti / Fortune Fortune Nov 12, 2015 8:22 PM UTC  A model holds the 12.03-carat Blue Moon diamond during a press preview by auction house Sotheby's in Geneva on Nov. 4, 2015. A model holds the 12.03-carat Blue Moon diamond during a press preview by auction house Sotheby's in Geneva on Nov. 4, 2015.Fabrice Coffrini—AFP/Getty Images by [Laura Lorenzetti / Fortune](https://time.com/author/fortune/) ## Laura Lorenzetti / Fortune Fortune Nov 12, 2015 8:22 PM UTC Hong Kong billionaire Joseph Lau shelled out a record $48.5 million to buy the “Blue Moon” diamond at a Sotheby’s auction Wednesday, renaming the 12.03-carat diamond the “Blue Moon of Josephine” in honor of his daughter. The sale makes [the diamond the most expensive jewel ever](http://www.sothebys.com/en/news-video/blogs/all-blogs/all-that-glitters/2015/11/record-setting-blue-diamond.html) sold at auction, according to Sotheby’s [BID](http://fortune.com/company/bid/) 3.94% . It also netted the highest-ever price per carat—over $4 million. The previous record for the most expensive jewel bought at auction was for a 24.78-carat pink diamond dubbed [the “Graff Pink.”](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2010-11-16/pink-diamond-sells-for-record-45-6-million-in-geneva) It sold for $45.6 million in 2010 to Laurence Graff, a London jewelry dealer. Lau, a 64-year-old property tycoon, also paid $28.5 million for a [16.08-carat pink diamond](http://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2015/11/10/the-pink-diamond-sells-for-285-million-at-geneva-auction) earlier this week that he renamed the “Sweet Josephine,” also after his daughter, reported the _Guardian_. That adds to a growing collection for young Josephine. Lau bought a blue diamond in 2009 for $9.5 million, naming it the “Star of Josephine.” _This_ [_article_](http://fortune.com/2015/11/12/billionaire-diamond-auction/) _originally appeared on_ [_Fortune.com_](http://fortune.com)_._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4110728/billionaire-joseph-lau-blue-moon-diamond/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4110728/billionaire-joseph-lau-blue-moon-diamond/"},"headline":"Billionaire Buys 7-Year-Old Daughter Most Expensive Diamond Ever","datePublished":"2015-11-12T20:22:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:26:55.360Z","description":"The Hong Kong billionaire paid a record-making $48.5 million to give the 'Blue Moon' diamond to his 7 year old","url":"https://time.com/4110728/billionaire-joseph-lau-blue-moon-diamond/","keywords":["Newsfeed","World","Billionaires","records"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfaaf9a45cc64da7b/698870a60b72e37f186e6c6a/blue-moon-diamond.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laura Lorenzetti / Fortune"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfaaf9a45cc64da7b/698870a60b72e37f186e6c6a/blue-moon-diamond.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"SWITZERLAND-LUXURY-JEWELLERY-AUCTION-DIAMOND-FILES","caption":"SWITZERLAND-LUXURY-JEWELLERY-AUCTION-DIAMOND-FILES","creditText":"Fabrice Coffrini—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4110728/billionaire-joseph-lau-blue-moon-diamond/","name":"Billionaire Buys 7-Year-Old Daughter Most Expensive Diamond Ever"}}]}] ```