Companies

Two Italian jewelry brands made announcements recently: Calgaro will remain based in Milan, Italy, and produce goods in Vicenza. Rosato has offices in Italy in Arezzo, Tuscany, and Milan, and a U.S. office in Burbank, Calif.

Rio Tinto is working with its customers to ensure they are certified members of the Responsible Jewellery Council by 2011.

JewelersAlert.com launched Jewelers Alert Collection Corp., a licensed debt collector service created to serve the diamond and jewelry trade in the United States. In addition to traditional methods of tracking debt collections, JACC’s methodology also includes reporting to credit bureaus, skip tracing, and the use of fully licensed attorneys.

Philip Stein is reorganizing its businesses under a newly created holding company, Philip Stein Group. Operating under the new umbrella company will be the Philip Stein watch collections, the newly launched Fruitz brand, Philip Stein Wine Wands, and other lines of business.

Diamonds

Petra Diamonds sold the 507.00 ct. Cullinan Heritage diamond for $35.3 million, the highest sale price ever recorded for a rough diamond. Hong Kong’s Chow Tai Fook Jewellery was the buyer.

Crime

Police say a New York Diamond District jewelry heist on New Year’s Eve was an inside job, according to local news sources. Dialite Imports, on W. 46th Street, was said to have been robbed by armed bandits dressed as Hasidic Jews who stole

$4 million worth of merchandise. But police now allege that owners Atul Shah and Mahaveer Kankariya were behind it.

Real Estate

Extell Corp. has sold 26 W. 47th St., a nine-story office building in New York City’s Diamond District, to an unnamed jeweler from Kazakhstan, according to a local news report. The building has mostly jewelry tenants.

Associations

Jewelry and watch experts Amanda Gizzi and Helena Krodel, from the Jewelry Information Center, appeared on the Rachael Ray Show Feb. 9. To view the segment or see the jewelry that was featured, visit www.jic.org.