Hope Diamond (Le Bijou de Roi – king’s jewel ) is really a gem that takes your eyes; and according to the legend surrounding it, can take your life. There are many strange legends about precious jewels, but perhaps Hope diamond is the most famous (ironic name, given that it wouldn’t give hope to its owners ).
The diamond is a gem of 45, 52 carat, intense blue color with an exorbitant price estimated at $ 250 million; but it seems that some owners of jewelry paid a price far higher, misfortune and death are the consequences of possessing these valuable gem.
Curse of the Hope Diamond:
History begins in the seventeenth century when a gems merchant was traveling in India, Jean Baptiste Tavernier, stoled the diamond from the statue of a Hindu deity; here begins the whole legend of the curse of the jewel, angry deity condemning everyone who comes into possession of this precious gem and will wear it.
Merchant dies soon after selling the jewel (it seems that in a strange way), which became one of the favorite gems of the famous Sun King, Ludovic the XIV. The diamond is inherited by King Ludovic XVI who gives it to Marie Antoinette: is known the cruel fate of the two, death by beheading. For a while, nothing is known about who held the gem, this together with the rest of the crown jewels being stolen during the french revolution.
The stolen diamond reappears in England in a new form (cutted) in the early nineteenth century owned by a jeweler who sold it to english King George IV, although no evidence of such purchases; after the king’s death, the diamond was no longer in possession of the crown – its assumed that was being sold to cover the enormous debts of the king, or was stolen by a mistress of him.
Diamond becomes official in 1839 part of the collection of a wealthy banker Henry Hope (hence the name of the jewel), the same year that the banker dies. Gem and its curse would be the caused of Hope family ruin, all those who will inherit the diamond being pursued by bad luck, family wealth draining and its members dying.
The jewel is sold again by the Hope family, remained poor, eventually ending in America owned by a jeweler Simon Frankel. There is an unsubstantiated story, that in the following years there were a number of buyers, but each one returned the jewel after they were attacked by the curse.
After a series of sales, reaching in the possession Evalyn Walsh McLean , she believed that the diamond can bring her luck, although she had been made aware of the alleged curse. On the contrary, the rich lady was followed by a series of tragedies, her children dying and her husband going insane.
Hope diamond was sold and resold many times throughout its history, with more owners followed the so-called curse: a turkish sultan banished from the throne, a prince who suddenly gone insane and killed the dancer that he had given the jewel, a buyer who committed suicide, another one hanged, another one died in a car crash along with his entire family. The legend of the Hope diamond is linked also to the Titanic, whose tragedy is famous.
The last owner of the jewelry, Harry Winston, would have escaped the curse just because he donated the diamond to , Washington, where it can be admired today.
However, he stated that he didn’t belive in the curse, all the stories woven around the Hope Diamond being exaggerations in order to increase its value in the eyes of wealthy eccentrics.