Whether you believe it or not, the gorgeous and rare Hope Diamond has intrigued people for centuries, and is said to be cursed. The diamond probably was owned by King Louis XIV, stolen during the French Revolution, sold to earn money for gambling, worn to raise money for charity, and then finally donated to the Smithsonian Institution where it lies today.
One of the famous Cartier Jewellers, Pierre Cartier, in 1910, told a story to Evalyn Walsh McLean and her husband Edward, to entice them to buy the valuable gemstone. The very wealthy couple, met Cartier when they were vacationing in Europe. According to the story that Cartier shared, several centuries ago, a man named Tavernier visited India.
While he was there, he stole a large, blue diamond from the forehead (or third eye) of a statue of the Hindu goddess Sita. For this transgression, according to the legend, Tavernier was torn apart by wild dogs on a trip to Russia after he had sold the diamond. This was the first horrible death attributed to the curse, said Cartier: there would be many to follow.
Cartier also told the couple about Nicholas Fouquet, a French official who was executed; Princess de Lambale, beaten to death by a French mob; Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette were beheaded. In 1908, Sultan Abdul Hamid of Turkey purchased the stone and subsequently lost his throne and his favorite Subaya wore the diamond and was slain.
Greek jeweller Simon Montharides was killed when he and his family rode over a precipice. The grandson of Henry Thomas Hope (for whom the diamond is named) died penniless. There was a Russian count and an actress too who owned the stone in the early 20th century and came to bad ends.
In her memoir Father Struck It Rich, Evalyn McLean wrote that Cartier was most entertaining... "I might have been excused that morning for believing that all the violences of the French Revolution were just the repercussions of that Hindu idol's wrath."
Was it truly a curse, coincidences or a bigger conspiracy? Researcher Richard Kurin reports that many of these stories were misleading and some were flat out lies.
The Hope diamond is currently on display as part of the National Gem and Mineral Collection in the National Museum of Natural History for all to see.
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