Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Subway sandwich founder gifts rare ruby

|
|
 
  
Published: Oct. 13, 2004 at 7:25 PM

WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 (UPI) -- The Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., has received a rare 23.1-carat ruby from Peter Buck, a nuclear scientist who co-founded the Subway sandwich chain.

The ruby, mined in Burma in the 1930s and called Carmen Lucia, was donated by Beck in memory of his late wife, the Washington Post reported.

The brilliant red gem is set in platinum with two triangular colorless diamonds. It is one of the largest faceted Burmese rubies known to exist, said Jeffrey Post, curator of the National Gem and Mineral Collection.

He said it is Smithsonian policy not to discuss the monetary value or sale price of its gems, but the museum's chief geologist said it is the most important gift given to the Smithsonian in 20 years.

The ruby will be displayed Saturday, along with the 45.52-carat Hope Diamond, the 275-carat Napoleon I Diamond Necklace, Marie-Antoinette's diamond earrings, the 423-carat Logan sapphire, and more than 600 other gem and jewelry samples in the galleries.

Buck, 73, is worth $1.5 billion and ranks No. 165 on Forbes's last count of America's richest.

Topics: Peter Buck
© 2004 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Notable deaths of 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee AmfAR Cinema Against AIDS gala
Indianapolis 500 Presidential Medal of Freedom Memorial Day around the nation
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 20
Singer Janelle Monae arrives at the 2012 MTV Movie Awards in Universal City, California
View Caption
Singer Janelle Monae arrives for the MTV Movie Awards at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California. UPI/Jim Ruymen
fark
Five arrested in prostitution sting. Article lists their names, ages and distance from a church
Photoshop this power tower technician
Driving drunk and unlicensed, with a kid not even buckled let alone in a safety seat, en route to...
Man killed in Spencer fire. The lava lamps must have ignited the blacklight posters
Passenger jet crashes into apartment building in Nigerian capitol. Over 150 princes, bank officials,...
I'll see your zombie apocalypse, and raise you "swarms of deadly spiders" invading a town in India...