FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Jordi Fabre]

Rice Northwest Museum Gold Collection Stolen

The Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals, in Hillsboro, Oregon, just outside of Portland, housed a stunning collection of 107 (mostly) crystallized gold specimens in all sizes; many of these were wire thumbnail size pieces from the famous Ace of Diamonds mine, Liberty, Washington.

Most of these treasures, some cabinet specimens from Breckenridge, Colorado, a 42 oz leaf gold from The Alabama claim, Jamestown, California and a few others were stolen the evening of Friday, April 16, 2010. Ninety three of the specimens in the collection formerly belonged to John Barlow, and the loss to the mineral collecting community is great.

While it is not likely they will be offered for sale on the collector market, please be on the lookout and notify curator Rudy Tschernich immediately (tschernich@msn.com) if you learn of anyone offering for sale or trade similar specimens without a well documented history. Two photos are attached, one of the leaf gold from The Alabama Claim and one of an Ace of Diamonds specimen. If for some reason you do not reach Rudy immediately please contact Washington County Sheriff's Department Detective Jim George at 503-846-6093.

Bill Dameron

[John S. White]

Good news, it appears that the thief who stole the golds has been caught and most of the golds recovered:

HILLSBORO, Ore. (AP) - The Washington County sheriff's office says detectives have recovered nearly all the gold that was stolen from the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals in Hillsboro.
Detectives were led to the gold at an apartment in Tigard by a suspect who was arrested Wednesday in Portland.
He's identified as 28-year-old Jeff Harvey of Portland, the great-grandson of Richard and Helen Rice who founded the museum in the 1930s and the grandson of Bill and Sharleen Rice who donated most of the gold.
The gold, valued at more than $250,000, was taken from a safe in a Saturday night burglary at the museum west of Portland. Assistant museum director Linda Kepford said one 42-ounce nugget is valued at more than $50,000.

[Peter Megaw]

Glad the gold is back, how sad that it was an inside family job, my heart goes out to the Harvey's they are great people

[Jason]

Wow..that sucks..in the family too...probably wanted to buy some meth or crack with it..glad they found it..kid probably would have smashed it up or tried to melt it down..whew..well done PD

[Jordi Fabre]

Great news. I'm so happy!