A federal court judge has agreed to revive the 29-year-old case over the Pearl of Allah.
But last week an attorney for one of the investors asked the court to stick to an earlier agreement.
The origin of the 9-inch (23-centimeter) diameter pearl, which resembles a human brain, is surrounded by legend and myth. The diver who found it in 1934 off the Philippines drowned when he reached into a huge clam to take it.
As reported by the Denver Post on May 4, 2007, the conflict over ownership of the gem began in 1975 when co-owner Eloise Bonicelli was shot and killed by an intruder in her home. Investigators later found that the suspect, Delfino Ortega, was hired for the job by her estranged husband Joe Bonicelli, a bar owner Colorado Springs.
After Joe Bonicelli died in 1998, his part-ownership of the pearl went to his daughter by his second marriage, Nicolina Angeli Bonicelli.
In 2005, a jury awarded Bonicelli's children with Eloise $32.4 million for wrongful death. The three adult children subsequently filed a lawsuit seeking that the pearl be sold to pay the judgment.
Appraisers were said to have valued the gem up to $60 million.
Nicolina Angeli Bonicelli appealed the award, saying it was too high and the lawsuit was filed too late. But the state appeals court upheld the lower court's ruling.
