The most valuable artifact

This is a replica of the original Sunstone from the original Nauvoo Temple built in Nauvoo, Illinois in the 1940s. The reason I say original Temple is because the original was destroyed and a replica finished in 2002. There are only two remaining original Sunstones. In 1989 the Smithsonian Institution purchased one of the two remaining stones from Historical Society of Quincy and Adams Counties in Illinois and had been displayed on the grounds of the Woods mansion in Quincy for the preceding 75 years. A news account of the day said,

In one of the most expensive purchases ever by the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of American History, it has bought a "sunstone" from the Mormon pioneer's abandoned and destroyed temple in Nauvoo, Ill.

The 2 1/2-ton stone, with a carved radiant face emerging between cloud banks beneath a pair of handheld trumpets, began display this week just a few feet to the side of the original Star Spangled Banner at the museum's main entrance."Except for the Star Spangled Banner, you couldn't ask for a more central location," said Richard Ahlborn, curator in the museum's division of community life.

 See "Nauvoo Sunstone at the Smithsonian" By Lee Davidson, Washington Bureau Chief, Printed in the Deseret News, Published: Tuesday, Nov. 28, 1989 12:00 a.m. MST