"Diamond Buyback with Obagem: Expert Appraisal and Secure Transaction

The history of GIA is closely linked to that of its founder Robert M. Shipley. In the 1920s, while the world was plunged into the Great Depression, a typical jeweler, lacking in jewelry knowledge, set out to improve the climate of confidence in the gemstone business. After several business failures and a broken marriage, he divorced his wife, gave up everything and went to Europe. There, he met Beatrice, his future wife, who introduced him to people and got him a job teaching in a museum. Settled in Paris and still as passionate about gems as ever, he began to take correspondence courses in gemology at the National Association of Goldsmiths in Great Britain. Having acquired a solid grounding, he returned to Los Angeles in 1930 and began sharing his knowledge by teaching jewelers at the Los Angeles Gemological Institute, which he had founded. He joined forces with a number of them to set up a national guild of gem experts. In 1931, he opened the GIA's first diamond analysis laboratory. From then on, the profession of jeweler was formalized, gemology legitimately became a recognized science, and gemological certification was established. Over the years, the GIA has made a major contribution to the development of the sector through the manufacture of the aplanatic magnifying lens, the gemological microscope and numerous other devices and systems for analyzing the qualities and integrity of a diamond.