![\"Carlsbad,](\"https:\/\/wpdash.medianewsgroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/sut-l-visual-gia-012_2627496101.jpg\")
<\/a>Queen of Passion, a ruby, diamond and platinum necklace with rubies from Myanmar, was on loan from a private collector to GIA and featured in its most recent exhibit, \u201c Temples and Treasures of Southern Asia.\u201d GIA\u2019s curators are now working on the next exhibit, set to open in 2027. (Nelvin C. Cepeda The San Diego Union-Tribune)\n\u2018Living museum\u2019<\/p>\n
Unlike many specialized labs, GIA\u2019s strength lies in its strong grasp of the world of gemstones \u2014 from field research to education to laboratory analysis. Besides being a research center and a school, GIA is also \u201ca living museum, and we have over 100 exhibits spread throughout the campus,\u201d says Rachelle Turnier, GIA\u2019s manager of museum and in-kind gifts.<\/p>\n
The exhibits are meant \u201cto educate our public, our students and our employees \u2014 to create a space that people can come and enjoy and also see minerals in their rough form, in their cut form, in jewelry.\u201d<\/p>\n
The exhibits \u2014 free and open to the public but only by appointment<\/a> \u2014 are spread out across the Carlsbad campus and feature thousands of artifacts and jewelry pieces. Most of the items on display are from GIA\u2019s own collection, while some are on loan from other institutions or collectors.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re blessed to have a number of really big collectors that are local to us,\u201d says Turnier, who recently co-curated, with GIA curator Terri Ottaway, an exhibition titled \u201cTemples and Treasures of Southern Asia\u201d in the rotunda off the lobby.<\/p>\n At other institutions, gems and jewels often remain locked in safes and vaults. At GIA, the exact opposite happens. Because it\u2019s an active learning institution, Turnier says, \u201cour collection is one of the most used museum collections because we use it for research. \u2026\u00a0 We also take pieces up to the classroom so we have jewelry design classes look at them. \u2026 So we\u2019re really blessed to have this collection that can be used in so many different ways.\u201d<\/p>\n GIA\u2019s collection comprises nearly 50,000 pieces \u2014 rubies, emeralds, sapphires, diamonds and more \u2014 with about 1,500 on display. The rest are locked away but brought out for research and educational purposes. Asked about the overall value, representatives declined to say for liability reasons.<\/p>\n \u201cOver 75% of our collection has been donations over time \u2014 donations from industry clients, collectors or past students,\u201d Turnier says. \u201cPeople come here and they know that their treasures will be treasured by other people through our exhibits or used in the classroom. Many of them are people who want to give back to GIA because of what we do for the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n Toward the back of the lobby, there\u2019s a collection of red, white and blue gemstones arranged to celebrate America\u2019s 250th birthday. For the display, \u201cwe pulled together all of these gems in the colors of funky reds, whites and blues,\u201d Turnier says. There are bright red rubies \u2014 including a ruby carved to look like Abraham Lincoln \u2014 and some stones that are actually quite rare, like red beryl, which is one of the rarest minerals.\u201d<\/p>\n Outside GIA\u2019s main building is a statue of Richard T. Liddicoat, Jr., known as the \u201cfather of modern gemology.\u201d After holding various positions at GIA, Liddicoat was named its president in 1952, a position he held until 1983, when he became chairman of the institute\u2019s board of directors. Liddicoat created the modern grading standards for diamonds and was instrumental in expanding GIA\u2019s reach across the globe.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s considered the founder of modern gemology,\u201d Turnier says. \u201cHe really modernized and turned gemology into a science and had a mineral named after him\u201d \u2014 liddicoatite, a rare and vibrant mineral that\u2019s part of the tourmaline family.<\/p>\n A few feet away from the statue of Liddicoat, just past the entrance doors, is The Bahia, billed as \u201cthe world\u2019s largest pendant.\u201d Made of rutilated quartz, the 426-pound sculpture hangs from the ceiling in one corner of GIA\u2019s lobby. Carved from an 800-pound crystal found in Brazil, it took carvers Glenn Lehrer and Lawrence Stoller seven years to create.<\/p>\n The Bahia\u2019s location in the lobby was by design. During the equinox \u2014 spring and fall \u2014 \u201cthe sun comes straight through that window,\u201d Turnier says, pointing to glass windows behind the pendant, \u201ccracks through the quartz and shoots a rainbow of stars. So they specifically aligned and built this gallery just for this experience twice a year.\u201d<\/p>\n Throughout the campus, display after display showcases GIA\u2019s vast collection of gems and, perhaps more importantly, its deep well of information, from how stones are mined to a specific jewelry\u2019s place in history. On the walls, there are timelines and charts, all designed to educate students and the public about gemology.<\/p>\n Did you know, for example, that just 45 miles away from GIA\u2019s campus is one of the world\u2019s most famous tourmaline mines? The hot-pink variety of the tourmaline found in Pala, an unincorporated community in northern San Diego County, caught the attention of Empress Dowager Cixi, the de facto ruler of China\u2019s Qing dynasty \u2014 so much so that she had 120 tons mined in San Diego County and exported to China between 1902 and 1910.<\/p>\n \u201cShe had it fashioned into jewelry, snuff bottles and carvings,\u201d Turnier says, \u201cand actually when she passed away in the early 1900s, the mines closed for a period of time because their main and pretty much only customer had disappeared. Nowadays they\u2019ve revitalized the mines, and you can have a dig where you can go and sift through the gravel and try and find a tourmaline of your own.\u201d<\/p>\n Turnier\u2019s a walking encyclopedia, rattling off facts about diamonds one minute and then talking about an Elizabeth Taylor bracelet the next.<\/p>\n Just around the corner from the bracelet? \u201cOh, there\u2019s this tiara I want you to see,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is one of our most spectacular pieces that was recently donated, just last year. It\u2019s called an aigrette, which is a type of tiara that\u2019s meant to hold an egret feather, as you can see in the back there. This piece is unsigned, but it was fabricated around 1900 and true to the time, it is fully convertible.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can take off this band here, you can take this off, you can disassemble this. It becomes a hatpin. It can become a brooch, it can become a pendant, and so this custom. The case was actually created for it, and there are components behind it that allow you to convert into the different pieces. There\u2019s all kinds of fine mechanisms in it, and so they were making things like this back in the day before they even had any of our modern tools just with basic hand fabrication techniques.\u201d<\/p>\n GIA\u2019s exhibits, Turnier says, are really designed to accomplish two goals: \u201cWe create these exhibits for the public to admire but also to educate the students. To reinforce everything that they\u2019re learning in class and show them different examples of what they\u2019ll see out in the trade.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAll our students are learning a profession. They\u2019re learning how to handle gemstones. They\u2019re learning about designing jewelry. Most people come here, and they don\u2019t even know that sapphire occurs in more than one color. They think, \u2018Oh, I thought sapphire was just blue\u2019,\u201d says Turnier, who received her doctorate in geoscience from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Her area of expertise? Sapphires, specifically Montana and Burmese sapphires.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no other organization that does all the things that we do,\u201d Turnier says. \u201cThere are other gem analysis laboratories. There are other gem education organizations, and there are some gem research organizations, but there\u2019s no one who does all three.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a>Eden\u2019s Opal is one of the 50,000 pieces in the Gemological Institute of America\u2019s permanent collection. This piece, a gift from a private collector, is a 593-carat Lightning Ridge Australian black opal, set in a necklace of 18-carat yellow gold, diamonds and Tsavorite garnets. (Nelvin C. Cepeda \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)
\nMassive collection<\/p>\n<\/a>An Art Deco diamond brooch by Cartier, circa 1930, is a gift from a private collector and a part of GIA\u2019s collection. (Nelvin C. Cepeda The San Diego Union-Tribune)
\nGems throughout history<\/p>\n