Mr. Stone recommended buying jewelry that includes gemstones certified by the Gemological Institute of America. “It’s important to promptly notify the grading lab if the stone is lost to help aid in any potential recovery,” he said.
Mrs. Zwart concurred, noting that loose stones often may be marked by minuscule laser-engraving, only visible under a jeweler’s loupe, for identification purposes.
Sometimes, however, jewelry owners rely on faith, rather than technology, to locate missing gems.
In 2018 Dr. Ellen Fitzpatrick, a pediatrician in Las Vegas, was rear-ended at a traffic stop. In preparation for a CT scan at Sunrise Children’s Hospital, where she worked, she had to take out her stud earrings.
Each earring had a 1.01-carat round brilliant-cut diamond in a three-prong arrangement called a martini setting. “I hurriedly removed them and placed them in my pocket and put them back in just as carelessly” when she was cleared of any injury, Dr. Fitzpatrick recalled.
“I inadvertently touched my left ear and couldn’t feel the diamond, just the setting. Realizing the diamond was lost, I became very anxious and started praying to St. Anthony, the patron saint of lost things.
“I retraced my steps from my office, scouring the halls, down the elevator, to the radiology room, E.R. and back to my office. All the staff, even the radiologists, were helping me look for it.” Fortunately, a slight glimmer on the carpet underneath her desk turned out to be the diamond.
Ms. Knight probably wished she had been as lucky. She never found the diamond and later posted on social media that it had not been insured. But, according to People magazine, her yellow gown for the Grammys on Feb. 4 was matched by a new 14-karat yellow gold ring featuring a five-carat princess-cut diamond.
