In the depths of the bear market
six years ago, Marc Weill began hunting for alternative investments that would
perform well in a downturn. Weill, now 51 and founder and CEO of City Light
Capital, a venture capital firm in New York, considered moving into
traditionally defensive holdings like gold and gems. Rather than purchasing
mining stocks, he focused on the actual rocks and stones. He started buying cut
gems and mineral samples on eBay. But when he flew to Arizona to investigate the
annual Tucson Gem and Mineral Show that February—the nexus for mineral
aficionados—he learned more about the rarest and best specimens and began
acquiring the unusual aquamarine and tourmaline pieces that now make up his
collection.
 | PART OF the 1,000-pound stibnite that Marc Weill donated to
the American Museum of Natural History. (Photograph by Denis Finnin, AMNH.) |
When Weill, son of former Citigroup CEO Sandy Weill, first
started collecting minerals, he bought indiscriminately and spent several
thousand dollars online. After meeting dealers such as Dennis Tanjeloff, owner
of Astro Gallery of Gems in New York, however, he began to ascertain the
difference between the common pieces he acquired and extraordinary mineral
specimens that might appreciate. Thus began his focus on top-quality, six-figure
minerals.
Weill admits that his first purchases were "junk," but still
keeps them in pasteboard boxes in an unfinished basement room at his Greenwich,
Conn., home. A lifelong passion for rocks and minerals propelled his becoming a
serious collector over the past few years, gaining right of first refusal on
important new discoveries and regularly adding valuable specimens to his
personal collection. Today he employs a systematic method for acquiring new
finds and displays hundreds of minerals in six large custom-made cabinets
surrounding his pool table. Earlier this year, Weill received a collecting
accolade, the Desautels award for "best mineral case" at the Tucson fair.
"No one can duplicate this collection for any amount of money
right now; the rocks just don’t exist," Weill says of his 30 to 40 prizewinning
minerals. "A lot of these things were found anywhere from between 30 and 100
years ago and they don’t mine them anymore. A lot of the mines are closed."
 | | A COLLECTOR paid $60,000 for
a 600-pound smoky quartz
specimen from the Governador Valadares, Minas Gerais in
Brazil.(Photograph by Bonhams &
Butterfields.) |
In the past 10 years, collectors, dealers and auction
specialists report greater demand for the best minerals—and prices for the
finest pieces have doubled and tripled. Collectors appreciate the aesthetics of
acquiring crystals in many hues, but newcomers face a learning curve when it
comes to understanding what characteristics make a specimen rare and valuable.
Serious mineralogists, however, enjoy the challenge in studying the chemical and
geological elements and processes responsible for creating the minerals.
Most high-end mineral sales take place through dealers and at
shows. Collectors like Weill spend days at the Tucson show, examining new
specimens. Some auction houses, such as Bonhams & Butterfields, have carved
out minerals and other natural history objects as a niche. Bonhams &
Butterfields presents spring and winter sales focused on fossils and minerals.
The most recent sale, in June, generated more than $1 million. And with the best
minerals fetching prices well over $100,000, only rarely do museums and
institutions buy important new pieces. Rather, demand from Weill and his ilk
sustains today’s high prices.
Collecting minerals first gained popularity among scholars in
the 18th and 19th centuries and coincided with a rising interest in the natural
world. Benjamin Franklin was a mineral enthusiast, and the number of collectors
increased after the Civil War, during a period of growing wealth in the United
States. Andrew Carnegie was a noted collector, and Washington Roebling, who
designed the Brooklyn Bridge, is famous for amassing a group of thousands of
minerals, including at least one of nearly every known type. His son, John
Roebling, donated the specimens to the Smithsonian Institution in 1926. Clarence
Sweet Bement, a successful Philadelphia businessman, also assembled a well-known
private collection, reportedly investing more than $100,000 in the late 1880s.
J.P. Morgan eventually bought it in 1900 and donated it to the American Museum
of Natural History in New York.
Many collectors develop an interest through their personal
collecting in the field. In 1953, Arthur Sexauer found a large gold nugget in
the McClaren River in Alaska. His discovery of the 2.4-ounce nugget led to a
lifelong hobby. He purchased many other gold nuggets from prospector friends
in his hometown of Fairbanks over the next three decades and eventually
displayed them. (Many prospectors began carrying nuggets as a kind of expensive
worry stone or good luck talisman).
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