FILE - In this Nov. 4, 2015 file photo a Sotheby's employee displays the rare Blue Moon Diamond during a preview at Sotheby's, in Geneva, Switzerland. The 12.03 carat blue diamond is the largest cushion... (Associated Press) 
 
 GENEVA (AP) — An exceptionally large blue diamond sold Wednesday for 48.6 million Swiss francs ($48.5 million) — a new record price for any jewel at auction, Sotheby's said, culminating two Geneva auctions in which a private Hong Kong collector on both times bought a rare colored diamond to honor someone named Josephine. 
 
 The 12.03-carat 'Blue Moon' diamond, set in a ring, was said to be among the largest known fancy vivid blue diamonds and was the showpiece gem at the Sotheby's jewelry auction. A packed room broke into applause after the hammer came down at a price of 43.2 million Swiss francs, excluding fees — within the pre-auction estimate range of about 34 to 54 million francs. 
 
 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. 
 
 On its Twitter account, Sotheby's said the jewel was purchased by a Hong Kong private collector and was promptly renamed 'The Blue Moon of Josephine' — a similar name to one given to a pink diamond ring that sold for $28.5 million at Christie's in Geneva a day earlier: 'Sweet Josephine.' That too was bought by a Hong Kong collector who was not publicly identified. 
 
 "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," said auctioneer David Bennett. He specified the price as $48,468,158. "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. 
 
 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. 
 
 Blue diamonds are formed when boron is mixed with carbon when the gem is created. 
 
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 Chris Den Hond contributed from Geneva. 

 A Hong Kong billionaire spent a record $48.4m buying an 12.03-carat diamond dubbed “Blue Moon” for his seven-year-old daughter in an auction in Geneva. 
 
 Property tycoon Joseph Lau bought the rock at a Sotheby’s auction on Wednesday and immediately renamed it “Blue Moon of Josephine” after his daughter. 
 
 The sale comes the day after he spent $28.5m buying a rare 16.08-carat pink diamond – the largest of its kind to ever go under the hammer – from rival auction house Christie’s, which he rebaptised “Sweet Josephine”. 
 
 A Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for Lau confirmed the two purchases. “The first was the pink one, ‘Sweet Josephine’, and the second one was the ‘Blue Moon of Josephine’,” she said. 
 
 David Bennett, the head of Sotheby’s international jewellery division, said the “Blue Moon” sale broke several records and made the gemstone the most expensive diamond, regardless of colour, and the most expensive jewel ever sold at auction. It also fetched the highest-ever price per carat, he said. 
 
 The previous world record for a jewel sold at auction was held by the 24.78-carat “Graff Pink” diamond, which was sold by Sotheby’s for $46.2m in November 2010. 
 
 This is not the first time Lau has bought rare jewels for his daughter. In 2009, he reportedly spent $9.5m on another blue diamond, which he renamed the “Star of Josephine”. 
 
 Josephine is his daughter with girlfriend and former aid Chan Hoi-wan, according to local media. The 64-year-old also has two children with long-time partner Yvonne Lui. 
 
 In March 2014, Lau was found guilty of bribing a former minister in the gambling enclave of Macau in an attempt to purchase a prime development site. Lau, who was not in Macau for the sentencing, is unlikely serve time because the two semi-autonomous Chinese cities do not have an extradition agreement. 
 
 He was locked in a telephone bidding war for eight minutes for “Blue Moon” before the hammer went down, with the precious jewel staying within its pre-sale estimate of $35m-$55m. 
 
 The diamond was discovered in South Africa in January 2014 and was the largest cushion-shaped blue stone in the fancy vivid category to ever appear at auction. 
 
 Experts say the market for coloured diamonds has grown increasingly robust and both the blue and pink diamonds garnered a lot of attention in the run-up to this week’s jewel sales in Geneva. 

 GENEVA, Switzerland, Nov. 12 (UPI) -- A Hong Kong billionaire paid a record $48.4 billion at auction for a rare 12.03-carat blue diamond he said would be a gift to his 7-year-old daughter. 
 
 The so-called Blue Moon Diamond was purchased by real estate tycoon Joseph Lau in Sotheby's "Magnificent Jewels and Nobel Jewels" auction Wednesday in Geneva. 
 
 The jewel was mined last year in South Africa and cut and polished in New York in a six-month process. 
 
 Lau was convicted in Macau last year of corruption charges and received a five-year prison sentence. He remains free because Macau and Hong Kong have no extradition treaty. Lau did not personally attend the auction. 
 
 The sale price of the blue diamond also set a price-per-carat record, at $4,028,941 per carat. 
 
 Sotheby's said Lau immediately renamed his prize The Blue Moon of Josephine in honor of his youngest daughter, 7. He also purchased a pink diamond for $28.5 million at the auction and said he intends to give both to his daughter.
– What did your dad buy you when you were seven? A Hong Kong property tycoon just shelled out $48.5 million on a blue diamond as a gift to his daughter. The sale at Sotheby's on Wednesday night goes into the record books as the most ever paid for any jewel at auction, reports AP. Billionaire Joseph Lau immediately renamed the 12.03-carat gem the "Blue Moon of Josephine" in honor of his little girl. And that's not all Josephine is getting: The AFP notes that on Tuesday, Lau paid $28.5 million for a pink diamond at Christie's, with that one being renamed "Sweet Josephine." She can keep it with the other blue diamond Lau bought her for $9.5 million in 2009, which was itself renamed "Star of Josephine." "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," says auctioneer David Bennett, who described it as "a magical stone." Lau made headlines of a different sort last year when he was convicted on corruption charges in Macau, notes UPI. Lucky for him, Hong Kong and Macau have no extradition treaty, so he likely won't have to serve the five-year sentence. His newly purchased stone turned up last year in South African's Cullinan mine as part of a larger diamond and took three months to cut and polish after five months of "intense study." Per Sotheby's, that mine is the "only reliable source in the world for blue diamonds," and is where the Smithsonian Institution's "Blue Heart" was discovered in 1908. (Closer to home, a woman in Arkansas struck it rich at Crater of Diamonds State Park.)