The 10-year-old raised her paddle for the evening's most expensive lot: a pair of sparkling Lorraine Schwartz earrings previously owned by Queen Bey and worn by her grandmother (and the event's co-founder), Tina Knowles. The baubles were about to be sold to another guest for $80,000, according to "Abbott Elementary" creator Quinta Brunson, when Blue stepped in. "She's so rich!" someone can be heard exclaiming in the video (presumably Brunson, who posted the footage on her Instagram Stories).
However, Blue was not the ultimate winner of the bling; Mielle Organics founder Monique Rodriguez took home the earrings after paying $105,000. At the gala, Blue wore a bright blue suit with black sunglasses, while her superstar mother, 41, looked "too classy for this world" in a star-studded Gucci gown with pink elbow-length gloves. Jay-Z, 52, was dressed to the nines in a black velvet tuxedo. Tina Knowles and husband Richard Lawson's WACO Theater Center was the beneficiary of the glitzy event in Santa Monica. Solange Knowles, Blue's aunt, also helped chair the glamorous gala, which had a "Harlem Nights" theme.
Mr. Kinney wants to achieve something similar to what happened when gold was financialized. When investors could buy and sell gold without having to transport bars of the precious metal, commodity funds and others made allocations that drove the price of the precious metal to new highs. To be sure, ETFs and new futures contracts fail all the time. And functioning markets in investment diamonds have remained elusive, despite investor interest peaking during periods of high inflation, such as now, when people are eager to stash away wealth. Purchasing diamonds is the simple part. The issue is selling them, which is what the famous De Beers advertising line about holding forever was supposed to discourage.
