The world's largest star sapphire, worth about $2.5 million, has taken up residence in a vault in Sandy.
Culley Davis, who with three other people owns the stone, brought the stone to Utah from Texas aboard a commercial flight Thursday, strapped to his chest.The stone's owners hope to make the most of their ownership but in a different way than by just auctioning it.
Davis said they want to offer the sapphire to a charity-telethon show, although they don't know which one just yet. They would allow the charity to raffle the sapphire at the end of the telethon to a person who had donated money to the charity. The charity would then have the potential to raise millions, Davis said.
Davis also hopes to locate the sapphire's previous owners to give them a cut of what he hopes to raise from the stone.
One of the original owners of the pale lavender sapphire is Texan Roy Whetstine, who found the rough, potato-size stone in a Tupperware bin at a gem show in Tuscon, Ariz. Whetstine attended only the last 30 minutes of the show but found what his trained eye believed to be a valuable uncut star sapphire.
A sign next to the container containing the crusty, dusty rocks read "Your choice - $15." Whetstine asked the seller, "You want $15 for this rock?" The seller said, "No, you can have it for $10 because it is not very pretty."
Whetstine paid with two $5 bills his two sons had given him to buy them each a rock.
Whetstine took the rock to the Gemological Institute of America, which told him and he was right. He had purchased, for $10, the world's largest star sapphire, worth $2,543,200.
It is the largest pure crystal star sapphire ever found. Before it was cut it weighed 1,905 carats. It now weighs in at about 1,156 carats and is about the size of a large egg. It is larger than both the fabled Star of India and the Black Star of Queensland. Whetstine named the sapphire the Life and Pride of the Americas Star Sapphire.
Whetstine borrowed money against the Star of America, but because he couldn't pay off the debt, he lost the stone to the Texas businessmen who loaned him the money. The businessmen contacted Davis, who used to be a gemologist, and made him a partner.
Davis also hopes to track down the man who originally sold the stone at the Arizona gem show and give him some of the money he hopes to raise from the stone. In addition, he wants to find Whetstine's sons, Johnathan and Steven, who gave their father the money originally, and help finance their college education.