Pearl of Allah, Fact; Pearl of Lao Tsu, Fiction

[salem]

Lol, Knotty, I think I have dropped the thread myself. D'oh! I didn't see that part where you wrote there was a real skull under there. I thought Raison was saying the diamonds were modeled as a skull, but sold somehow differently. lol Now I see she was jsut saying no real skull was included. That makes more sense. Of course, as I mentioned before, my grave-robbing ancestors would have loved it.

Now, can anyway find out who bought it?




I tried to find out and several articles said it was t an unidentified investment group. the scary part...it is being paid in cash. Man, the suitcase has gotta hurt!! And where do you put it? I doubt my entire apartment could fit a $100 million bucks. It seems a bit sketchy it isn't being done by wire transfer....

http://www.howestreet.com/articles/index.php?article_id=4680

The part about the skull is about halfway down, so you have to scroll a bit.

 

[Caitlin]

Knotty and I wrote a Jeremy-edited article on our findings, all of which are already in this thread- but if you want an organized report and the definitive word on the Pearl of Allah fact: pearl of LaoTsu, fiction, find it in the news department just above on the left hand side......

The Pearl of Allah: The Facts the Fiction and the Fraud
The real history of The Pearl of Allah (aka Pearl of Lao Tzu)
by Caitlin Williams and Kathie Hodson - September 20th, 2007
Is the story of Lao Tzu true? Has this pearl made a mockery of the US court system?

 

[jshepherd]

Did Cobb steal the pearl?

Did Cobb steal the pearl?

Is it possible that Cobb stole the pearl in the first place???

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view_article.php?article_id=94689

Local researchers claim to have documented narrative evidence to indicate that the pearl originated here in 1935 and was not handed to a foreigner as a gift, as generally viewed, but actually stashed away to be sold and never returned.

...

Quijano said that based on verbal accounts handed down by two generations of descendants, Panglima Pisi had asked Cobb to find a buyer for the pearl but the latter never returned to the village.

 

[knotty panda]

It's certainly plausible and would tie up a lot of loose ends.

 

[Caitlin]

Since practically everything else Cobb said was b-s, I wouuldn't be surprised if it were stolen. That ugly pearl seems to have inspired insanity in most of its owners..........at least a sense of ravening greed that far outweighs the value of the pearl!

However that does make me wonder...Who is the Paglima? You mean he may be a real person? If so, what "tribe" or ethnicity is he? That would explain Cobb's photos, but there is still a mystery there. I would like to see them ccampaign to get the pearl back. I am sure that Cobb thought he could get an oputrageous sum for it. $3.5 million is outrageous for 1939, just as the infamous $40 million claimed by the SFLab was bogus. We already know that that lab report was a trumped up report made by unqualified people.

At this point, I think Cobb must be entirely discredited.

 

[Caitlin]

Has anyone looked at the Wikipedia article lately? I think the latest claims belong in it.

 

[Caitlin]

Here is the LINK to Cobb's original article in Natural History Magazine.It is a facsimile of the original article.

 

[Caitlin]

I just got word today that Victor Barbish died this past January. I am sure he must have left quite a mess behind him. He was one slippery character- if not worse.

I wonder if his lawyer or whoever was posting in his defense on the Wikipedia article will now drop it and let the truth come out. I really hope this story does not die with him and that more of the pearl's mysteries are solved.

Has there ever been a pearl with as much bad karma associated with it -as this one has?

 

[Caitlin]

I have been meaning to get back to this subject for a while. I found an interesting link in the public records in Florida.

You will need to go to THIS page and ask for a search for Victor Barbish. He has several cases A mortgage complaint against him. Two cases one open, one closed where he is the plaintiff and one case where he is the decedent.
The latter case lists the claims against his estate.
Line number 11 has an open claim for $360,000
Line 20 has a claim for $150,296+
Lines 22&23 have two different claims for $1,900,000
follows lines with $11,000 $360.00 and $359,000+ claims against the estate
Then there are a couple of small claims, then a another whopping 1,265,000
A quick estimate puts the claims at north of five million.

Would it be possible for that pearl to go up for sale?

What we need is a legal nose in Fla to do a better investigation than I can do.

 

[pattye]

THAT is quite a legacy to leave!!!!

Pattye
so many pearls, so little time

 

[Caitlin]

Here is an interesting link put up by the guy who bought it from Cobb's estate, Peter Hoffman. Barbish only revealed his part-ownership later.

I couldn't get the sound to work though.Lots of views of the pearl and Peter Hoffman talking about it
http://www.pearlofallah.com/

 

[Caitlin]

The tidbits discrediting Cobb's story keep coming out.

The Muslim diver, who found the gem, said its surface bore the image of a turbaned face, and he named it the Pearl of Allah.

and other tidbits from officials on Palawan. Now how could the diver who found it still be alive if the clam itself drowned him? !!!

http://search.live.com/images/results.aspx?q=Pearl+Allah&FORM=BIRE#focal=9358a74024a0b88de9da449a82f54fee&furl=http%3A%2F%2Fdemptoanda.files.wordpress.com%2F2007%2F10%2Fpearl31.jpg

The article was written by Redemto Anda, whom I contacted some time ago.

 

[DrTKStern]

Panglima

Panglima

Since practically everything else Cobb said was b-s, I wouuldn't be surprised if it were stolen. That ugly pearl seems to have inspired insanity in most of its owners..........at least a sense of ravening greed that far outweighs the value of the pearl!

However that does make me wonder...Who is the Paglima? You mean he may be a real person? If so, what "tribe" or ethnicity is he? That would explain Cobb's photos, but there is still a mystery there. I would like to see them ccampaign to get the pearl back. I am sure that Cobb thought he could get an oputrageous sum for it. $3.5 million is outrageous for 1939, just as the infamous $40 million claimed by the SFLab was bogus. We already know that that lab report was a trumped up report made by unqualified people.

At this point, I think Cobb must be entirely discredited.

Hi, Caitlin,

Under the Sultanate form of government, a Panglima is equivalent to a mayor and also head of the local militia, who is appointed by and serves at the Sultan's will. Palawan belonged to the Sultan of Sulu, and the tribe is probably Tausug, or a subdivision of the Tausug. The other two tribal groups under the Sultan in that region are the Badjao (who live mainly on boats on the sea), and the Samal tribe. Tausug is by far the most likely. The PHilippine government has initialed an agreement to include Southern Palawan in the autonomous region under negotiation with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. They already included it in the 1976 Tripoli Agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front of Chairman Nur Misuari. To this day most islands or large communities have a Panglima.

I will have my historians investigate local lore about this man and the big pearl.

Best,
Tom Stern,MD

 

[Caitlin]

Excellent. I hope they are able to raise the question of who it belonged to. If Cobb stole it, as the locals seem to believe, rightfully, it should be returned.

Yeah, it will. Like the Crown Jewels back to India, Yeah, sure.

 

[Caitlin]

UPDATE. free download
Here are the probate case court records http://depositfiles.com/en/files/8533lh908

Tom, did you ever follow up on this?

I will have my historians investigate local lore about this man and the big pearl.

 

[Caitlin]

THE BACK STORY GROWS.

The Paglima Pisi's descendents have been claiming ownership of the pearl and more than one has said The pearl was given to Cobb in a business deal and put it on consignment, so to speak.

Since our article was published,I have done a bit more googling, uncovering some interesting material. people involved with several aspects of this story have contacted me, giving me a wealth of information, to keep secret. One of them gave me photos of the current Pisi family and let me read his interview with them. I may not publish the photos or interview, but I can tell you the gist of the story.

He personally interviewed the Pisi family and took photos of them. He had two old men as sources who remembered playing with half of the shell as children. They claim their fathers who were kids tried to play soccer with the pearl. When Cobb came, he noticed, heard it was a clam pearl, liked the pearl, its huge size. Cobb talked to the Paglima about not paying any money now, but he would take it to New York where he could get a fortune for it. They made a deal, and Cobb took the pearl on consignment to NYC with dollars and cents in his eyes. He left and never looked back or went back.

I think we are getting to the bottom of the clam story.

I think a new legend is growing. The Pisi family legend. One old man said something that sounded like an exaggeration so I am still skeptical of certain parts of the story.

The author of the article has become unreachable. So I decided to give a precis of his conversation as an inkling of more to come on this story.

 

[Valeria101]

Time has past, and now another pearl has got a price put on its story. This time, it sounds fairly straight forward.

Hammer to drop on December 6, at Bonham's:

Sale 17535
Los Angeles
Lot 2377 - Triacna with pearl attached
Lot 2376 - a large shell of the same sans pearl

Also reported by Pala: HERE

 

[GemGeek]

Dare I say it? This one is almost cute!

 

[KAC]

Estimate: $300,000 - 400,000

Who is going to pay that for a lump and a shell??? The valuation on these is nuts.

 

[Hanaleimom]

Who is going to pay that for a lump and a shell??? The valuation on these is nuts.

I am not thrill about the lump but the shell brings back memory of Coco Palms Resort (Kauai, Hawaii) where we honeymooned in 1988 http://www.coco-palms.com/. Elvis also filmed the finale of "Blue Hawaii" here. Their bathroom sinks were Tridacna clam shells. The hotel was destroyed by Hurricane Iniki in 1992 and as of today, is still not restored. Image of sink after hotel damage.