Associated Press

11:41 AM CST, February 18, 2009

SAGINAW, Mich. - The case of the missing diamond has been closed with a judge declaring there’s no missing diamond.

Victoria Harris said she took her wedding ring with a 2.35-carat pink diamond to a jeweler to be resized but got something less valuable in return.

Harris sued J.B. Robinson Jewelers and even acted as her own lawyer. But after more than three years of litigation, a federal judge in Bay City said the Saginaw woman has failed to produce objective proof that her ring had a pink diamond.

J.B. Robinson’s expert said the ring’s prongs and settings could not hold a rock as large as Harris had claimed.

“I feel terrible,” Harris, 62, said in an interview, occasionally crying. “I have pictures on my wedding night with a pink diamond on my hand.”

The substitute teacher said she took her ring to a J.B. Robinson store in a Saginaw mall in 2002. She had regularly worn it for only three of her 29 years of marriage and decided to get it enlarged.

When the ring was ready for pickup, Harris said she was shocked.

“This is not mine!” she wrote in her lawsuit. “There’s too much glittering and sparkling and it’s small. … They ripped out a piece of my heart.”

J.B. Robinson summoned an expert, Martin Fuller, who has evaluated more than 50,000 pieces of jewelry. He said a good cleaning can dramatically change a diamond’s appearance.

“A 2.35 carat natural fancy pink diamond would be a rarity to encounter in today’s market and would have been a more uncommon item in the 1970s,” Fuller, a master gemologist, said in an affidavit.

In a court filing, a lawyer for J.B. Robinson, John Decker, said Harris’ allegations of theft were “preposterous.”

U.S. District Judge Thomas Ludington last week ruled in favor of the jeweler, adopting the recommendation of a magistrate judge and dismissing the case. A message seeking comment Wednesday was left with Decker.

Harris said she won’t wear the ring that was returned to her.

“It might as well be a rock from outside,” she said in an interview Tuesday. “It has no meaning to me, no life. … I can’t see this as the end of the story.”

NEW YORK — Gold futures rose Wednesday for a second session, ending at the highest level in seven months after briefly topping $980 an ounce, as safe-haven buying continued. Gold for February delivery ended up $10.70, or 1.1%, at $977.70 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest closing level for a front-month contract since July 15, when gold closed at the same price. The February contract, which expires on Feb. 25, rose to $980.80 earlier. Trading more actively, the April contract also ended higher at $978.20.
Copyright © 2009 MarketWatch, Inc.

NEW YORK, Feb 5 (Reuters) - U.S. regional retailer Fortunoff filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday and said it will try to sell the business, but if it cannot it will close its doors.

The company, which sells jewelry, dinnerware and furniture in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut, began suffering a “severe liquidity crisis” in January as it was trying to sell the company, according to court documents.

Dismal sales over the 2008 holiday season, weak consumer spending on high-end furniture and jewelry, the costs of expanding its jewelry line in Lord & Taylor stores and reduced borrowing capacity all hurt operations, it said.

The prolonged economic recession has taken a major toll on a broad range of U.S. retailers as consumers scale back spending.

R&M added the ‘China Gold & Silver Jewelry Market Channel Report, 2007-2008’ to its research listings given the recent growth of the market.

Since 2003, the retail price index of China’s gold and silver jewelry goods has risen continuously, at a higher rate than all other commodities, the report explained.

In 2007, China’s jewelry imports grew 35 percent to $6.2 billion, and exports grew 16.8 percent to $8 billion, M&R reported adding that sales of gold and silver jewelry kept a good momentum in the first quarter of 2008.

“That indicates China’s jewelry market is increasingly prosperous and the import and export trade is continuously growing,” the report said. “China’s position as one of world’s main jewelry manufacturers and consumers has been further strengthened.”

By year-end, there were more than 10,000 jewelry retailers on mainland China, the majority of which were small outlets without independent brands and competitiveness, M&R said.