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‘Mediterranean Blue Diamond’ Could Fetch $20 Million at Auction 

A Sotheby’s staff holds "The Mediterranean Blue", a fancy vivid blue diamond weighing 10.03 carats estimated to reach 20 million Swiss francs during an auction preview in Geneva, Switzerland, May 8, 2025. (Reuters)
A Sotheby’s staff holds "The Mediterranean Blue", a fancy vivid blue diamond weighing 10.03 carats estimated to reach 20 million Swiss francs during an auction preview in Geneva, Switzerland, May 8, 2025. (Reuters)
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‘Mediterranean Blue Diamond’ Could Fetch $20 Million at Auction 

A Sotheby’s staff holds "The Mediterranean Blue", a fancy vivid blue diamond weighing 10.03 carats estimated to reach 20 million Swiss francs during an auction preview in Geneva, Switzerland, May 8, 2025. (Reuters)
A Sotheby’s staff holds "The Mediterranean Blue", a fancy vivid blue diamond weighing 10.03 carats estimated to reach 20 million Swiss francs during an auction preview in Geneva, Switzerland, May 8, 2025. (Reuters)

A 10-carat blue diamond which could fetch $20 million when it goes under the hammer later this month was presented by auction house Sotheby's in Geneva on Thursday.

The cushion-shaped piece, known as the "Mediterranean Blue Diamond," was mined in South Africa and displayed a rare color that qualified as fancy vivid blue, Sotheby's said.

"The market for coloured diamonds continues to go from strength to strength," said Jessica Wyndham of Sotheby's, added that she expected a price in the region of $20 million.

In 2016, another vivid blue diamond sold for 56.8 million Swiss francs ($68.7 million) at a Christie's auction in Geneva.

Sotheby's high jewellery collection, which includes other coloured gemstones, was presented to journalists in Geneva ahead of a live auction scheduled for May 13 at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

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Toxic Cloud Forces 160,000 Spaniards to Stay Inside after Fire

A picture taken on May 10, 2025 shows smoke billowing from a building storing pool cleaning products, in the coastal city of Vilanova i la Geltru, south of Barcelona. (AFP)
A picture taken on May 10, 2025 shows smoke billowing from a building storing pool cleaning products, in the coastal city of Vilanova i la Geltru, south of Barcelona. (AFP)
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Toxic Cloud Forces 160,000 Spaniards to Stay Inside after Fire

A picture taken on May 10, 2025 shows smoke billowing from a building storing pool cleaning products, in the coastal city of Vilanova i la Geltru, south of Barcelona. (AFP)
A picture taken on May 10, 2025 shows smoke billowing from a building storing pool cleaning products, in the coastal city of Vilanova i la Geltru, south of Barcelona. (AFP)

Around 160,000 people in Spain's northeastern Catalonia region were warned to stay inside on Saturday after a fire at an industrial estate caused a toxic cloud of chlorine over a wide area, emergency services said.

The blaze at a swimming pool cleaning products company started at 2.20 a.m. (0020 GMT) in Vilanova i la Geltru, a town 48 kilometers (30 miles) south of Barcelona and caused a huge plume of chlorine smoke over the area.

"If you are in the zone that is affected do not leave your home or your place of work," the Civil Protection service said on social media site X.

No one has been hurt in the fire, Catalan emergency services said on Saturday, but residents in five towns were sent a message on their mobile phones telling them to remain inside.

"It is very difficult for chlorine to catch fire but when it does so it is very hard to put it out," the owner of the industrial property, Jorge Vinuales Alonso, told local radio station Rac1.

He said the cause of the fire might have been a lithium battery.

Trains which were due to pass through the area were held up, roads were blocked and other events were cancelled.

The fire was under control, Civil Protection spokesperson Joan Ramon Cabello told the TVE television channel.

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