Posted on 01/30/2005 2:31:56 PM PST by wagglebee
Legend has it the so-called Pearl of Allah was created as a symbol of peace 2,500 years ago in ancient China. To Victor Barbish, the 14-pound gem has been nothing but a big headache.
The football-sized grayish lump has been tied to enough greed, drama and intrigue to rival any Agatha Christie mystery, including two contract killings and a court fight that ended with one of the largest jury awards of its type in Colorado history.
"It draws the wrong type of people," said Barbish, the pearl's majority owner who lives in Colorado Springs. "It's only a pearl. It has a nice history. It was made to do something good, apparently, but what it's been drawing, it's been terrible."
Barbish says he kept the pearl in a Denver bank vault and a series of safe deposit boxes over the years, but he won't disclose its present location, even though he'd like to unload the gem to a museum or library.
How the pearl wound up in Colorado is quite a tale - an extraordinary one, if the rumors are to be believed. It is purportedly a former amulet of Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu, who is said to have carved his face and those of Confucius and Buddha into its surface. It was then planted in successively larger clams for generations; the convolutions on its surface resemble a human brain.
According to legend, the pearl was lost in a shipwreck centuries ago, then found in 1934 off Palawan Island in the Philippines by a diver who drowned when he reached into a huge clam to take it. The clam and the diver were pulled to shore and the island's chief, a Muslim who named the pearl, took possession.
About five years later, Wilburn Dowell Cobb saved the life of the chief's son and was given the pearl in gratitude. Cobb's heirs sold it in 1980 for $200,000 to Beverly Hills jeweler Peter Hoffman, who in turn sold part ownership to Barbish.
The two men formed the now-defunct World's Largest Pearl Co. Inc. in California and raised money by selling interests in the pearl to investors including Joe Bonicelli.
This is where the history turns bloody.
The pearl is now part of the largest wrongful-death judgment in Colorado history after a jury recently awarded $32.4 million to Bonicelli's adult children, who sued over the 1975 death of their mother in a contract killing.
After Bonicelli's death in 1998, police said they determined that the decades-old killing was done at his behest.
His children want the pearl sold so they can be paid the settlement they won against their father's estate. They plan to use the money to establish a foundation in their mother's name to help abused women and children, said their lawyer, Richard Tegtmeier.
Bonicelli left his estate to his youngest daughter, whom he fathered with his second wife. Neither her attorney nor Phillips' attorney returned calls.
Appraisers have valued the pearl at up to $60 million, Tegtmeier said.
He said further court action will be necessary to determine how his clients will receive their money - but it will have to include selling the pearl.
Barbish just wants to be rid of it, but on his terms.
"We are donating that pearl," he said. "We don't want the money for it. We want it to go to a charity for everybody to see and view, either a museum or a presidential library."
I hate to argue with kin of marine biologists but you can open a clam by smothering it long enough. Clamp it shut and after a while it will be "gasping" like, and open readily when released.
We're jewelers in my family...
You know, it looks sort of like a mummified monkey head, nodding a little to the left.
I'll say it again. One ugly pearl.
Giant clam shell---you can probably pick one up on ebay for a few hundred...clams. :)
I used to have one, got it at Pier 1 in the seventies. Size of a baby's cradle it was. No excuse, had money coming out of my eyes at the time.
Other way being to cut the muscle that serves to close it. And that would kill it.
What kind of clams? Commercial eating?
WoW... that must've been quite a sight!
They are beautiful, I see them when I scuba dive, I like the big gust of water they shoot when they close up!
It must be an awesome sight indeed... :o) Where do you scuba dive?
Usually in Thailand, I did the Pacific Ocean side and the Indian Ocean side in December, and have dove in Indonesia and the Barrier Reef. Click on my name for some pics from the last trip.
The giant clams are beautiful, the biggest I ever saw were in the Coral Sea.
Don't feel bad for the business owner. Feel sorry for the fish. At the time (six years ago?), I was a temp at Virginia's third largest law firm.
I wouldn't say my 12-pound tuxedo cat is a sweetheart, but he's certainly a cool character. :-)
Are there a lot of pearl farms where you dove? I was wondering if they were destroyed in the tsunami.
Bummer.
I don't recall seeing any, but there were a few in Vietnam at Nha Trang, but that's a different ocean!
I'm going back to Phuket soon, just depends on my job situation, and my possible future job situation. Its pretty much rebuilt in Patong.
$1,035 and you gave it out. That has to suck. :-(
I've had both, fresh water is too easy, I had Oscars that ate anything, including the Plecostomus.
As for salt, its tough here in AZ, because of the summer heat to keep the water cool, but I always had problems with my 55 gal. I once had a grouper that ate a wrasse that was 2/3rd his size, he had its tail sticking out of his mouth for a day.
I don't have room for a salt tank now, but I will get a 100 gal with a wet/dry when I do. Its gratifying to see all the fish I killed in their natural environment, Iv've seen almost everything diving except for blue tangs. And I got nailed by a lion fish once, that hurt!
Ping me if you ever put a picture of your kitty on your FR profile. :-)
You're lucky, I think I am going to be sent to Albania and Macedonia for my next assignment. Not exactly garden spots.
The aneome wasn't that big, just close up shot! The shark was in the pacific, the rest in the much clearer Indian Ocean.
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