RAPAPORT… 

The American Gem Society (AGS) will shut its laboratory operations on the finish of this 12 months, with the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) taking over parts of the group.

AGS Laboratories’ mental property (IP), know-how, analysis employees and Las Vegas facility will develop into a part of the GIA, the 2 organizations introduced Wednesday. AGS Laboratories will proceed to supply companies till the tip of 2022 and can contact purchasers with particulars of the transition, it stated.

The nonprofits, each based by Robert M. and Beatrice Shipley within the Thirties, will mix their gemological analysis efforts. The amalgamated crew will “develop revolutionary merchandise” to assist customers and the commerce, encompassing light-performance analysis and a “science-based” fancy-cut grade customary, they stated.

“This consequential settlement brings AGS and GIA even nearer, driving our future with 90 years of shared historical past and elevating our founders’ imaginative and prescient,” commented AGS CEO Katherine Bodoh in a joint assertion.

The GIA will create an endowment to assist AGS and its membership. They didn’t present additional monetary particulars. The collaboration may also assist advance AGS’s retailer applications and assist extra member training, for instance on the annual AGS Conclave, the assertion continued.

The AGS Supreme grading report will likely be out there from GIA as a digital-only complement to GIA experiences for eligible D to Z pure and laboratory-grown spherical and fancy-shape diamonds, incurring an extra price of $25. GIA purchasers will be capable to request these further experiences from January 2023.

In an info sheet for patrons, AGS famous that GIA was chargeable for inventing the 4Cs of diamond grading whereas AGS “created gentle efficiency and ignited a dialogue on sparkle.” For example, the AGS is without doubt one of the few main labs to supply a minimize grade for fancy-shape diamonds.

“By harnessing one another’s strengths to maneuver ahead boldly, customers will likely be higher protected, and we are going to make sure the longevity of the Shipleys’ imaginative and prescient,” stated GIA president and CEO Susan Jacques.

Correction, October 20, 2022: An earlier headline incorrectly said that the GIA was taking up AGS’s grading division. Actually, the AGS Laboratories grading operations will shut, with the GIA taking up sure different parts of the group, together with analysis.



Picture: AGS CEO Katherine Bodoh and GIA president
and CEO Susan Jacques. (GIA/AGS)