The Hope Diamond is one of the most famous diamonds in the New World. Crystal clarity, a deep sapphire blue diamond of 45.52 carats became famous as an ominous, fatal stone that brought terrible troubles, illnesses and misfortunes to all its owners. Despite its notoriety, the blue diamond has been fanatically hunted at all times, repeatedly kidnapped and ransomed from the owners for fabulous sums.
Its origin is lost over the centuries. This diamond ended up in Europe in the 17th century thanks to a certain Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, a traveler and part-time royal supplier of precious stones. He delivered the blue diamond to France directly to the court of Louis XIV and, according to the French chroniclers, presented the stone to his monarch as a gift in exchange for the title of nobleman. The radiant crystal in narrow circles of the court nobility began to be called the "Blue Eye of Louis".
Tavernier had previously traveled across India for a long time, where he visited Shah Jahan's court in Agra and the famous diamond mines of Golconda. But how a huge blue diamond ended up in his hands, no one knows for certain. The most common version says that this crystal was the eye of the god Rama, whose statue he adorned until it was stolen by unknown persons. According to local beliefs, the angry god Rama cursed the kidnappers and all subsequent owners of the stone, so the diamond brought and brings only death, grief and misfortune to its owners. In addition, the left eye of the statue of the god Rama was a punishing eye.
Jean-Baptiste Tavernier
Tavernier, having written his memoirs, soon died in a mysterious way in Russia, passing through Moscow, and, apparently, was buried there. Who buried the French adventurer and where his grave is - no one knows.
The diamond, brought by Tavernier, originally weighed about 115 carats, but after the Hope fell into the possession of the French king Louis XIV, the royal jeweler made several smaller stones from it. One of them, which once adorned the ring of Empress Maria Feodorovna, is now kept in the Diamond Fund of the Moscow Kremlin.
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The largest "splinter" of an Indian diamond weighing 69 carats appeared in the inventory of royal treasures as the "blue crown diamond" (fr. Diamant bleu de la Couronne) or "blue Frenchman". It is believed that Louis XIV wore it around his neck, set in a gold pendant. Under him, France fought incessant wars, which laid a heavy burden on the country and ruined it. Louis himself died after several days of agony from gangrene of the leg, which the king injured when falling from a horse while hunting. We can say that the stone of happiness did not bring him.
Louis XIV
Louis XV also wore a "blue Frenchman" - a diamond adorned the royal pendant with the Order of the Golden Fleece. The king gave the stone to his favorite, the Marquise de Pompadour, but soon she died of pneumonia. The stone returned to the royal family and then passed on to Louis XVI, who presented the blue diamond to his beloved wife Marie Antoinette. The Queen was later publicly beheaded during the French Revolution. Louis XVI himself was accused of conspiracy against the freedom of the nation, stripped of the title of king and publicly executed.
It is interesting that Marie-Antoinette sometimes gave the princess de Lamballe, with whom she was very friendly, to vilify the diamond. The curse of the stone overtook the princess - she, too, was killed in the most monstrous way. This is how the Comte de Fersant described her execution in a letter dated September 19, 1792: “The pen is unable to describe the details of Madame de Lambal's execution. She was tortured in the most terrible way for eight hours. Having pulled out her chest and teeth, they brought her to consciousness for about two hours, providing her with all kinds of help, and all this so that she could "better feel death."
Princess de Lambal
During the French Revolution, which took place with robberies and pogroms of the royal chambers, the stone was stolen along with other treasures of the French crown and taken to England, where he received the nickname "Blue Frenchman". It is not known where he was for a long time - he came out only in 1812, with a different cut and weighing only 45.52 carats. According to some reports, the stone was purchased by the English king George IV, after whose death in 1830 the diamond was sold to an unknown person.
As time went on, rumors spread that all the owners of the stone went bankrupt, went crazy or died. Despite this notoriety, in 1839 British banker Henry Philip Hope bought the diamond at auction for £ 18,000. Then the stone was named "Hope Diamond". Henry Hope himself lived to old age, but went bankrupt, depriving himself and his family of a huge fortune.
Henry Hope
This event added even more topics of conversation about the curse of the diamond. By that time, his story even served as a prerequisite for the creation of many literary works. For example, in 1866 British writer Wilkie Collins wrote the novel "Moonstone", the plot of which is clearly inspired by the story of the Hope diamond.
After Hope's death, the diamond was resold again several times. It is known that a Turkish collector bought the blue diamond from the Hope family. The unfortunate man did not even have time to admire the stone, as he broke his neck on the ship during a storm.
Soon, the Hope diamond appears in the harem of the Turkish Sultan Abdul Hamid II. He presented the stone to his beloved concubine, and soon she was killed by robbers. Sultana, notorious for bloody repression, was dethroned in 1909 and died in prison in 1918.
Abdul Hamid II
The next owner of the diamond was the Russian prince Korytkovsky, who presented it to the French dancer Ledyu. Soon he shot her in a fit of jealousy, and two days later he was killed in a mysterious way.
In 1911, the diamond was acquired by the famous French jeweler Pierre Cartier for 550,000 francs. By that time, the stone was already overgrown with an incredible number of real and fictional tragic stories, which did not prevent the jeweler from selling it to the eccentric American millionaire Evelyn Walsh McLean. She was sure that a stone that brought trouble to other people would become her talisman. As a result, she wore Hope's diamond with little or no wear. However, soon Evelyn's husband went mad and died in a psychiatric hospital, her beloved son was hit by a car, and her daughter died of an overdose of drugs. Doctors suspected that she had committed suicide.
Evelyn McLean with Hope Diamond
Evelyn McLean herself lived for 60 years, without parting with the diamond, stubbornly not believing that all this was the curse of the Indian priests, although she was left alone and was almost completely ruined. After her death, the diamond was sold to the American jeweler Harry Winston to pay off debts. The curse of the stone did not affect him and in his fate, indeed, no misfortune occurred, probably because he often organized various charity events and even organized a tour of precious stones in the United States, donating the proceeds again to charity.
Harry Winston
It is curious that the jeweler himself has repeatedly assured the public that he is not superstitious and does not believe in any curse at all. “I've seen all sorts of stones and all their horror stories. This is all bullshit,”said Harry and exhibited the diamond again at exhibitions and balls.
In November 1958, Winston decided to donate the Hope Diamond to the United States by selling it to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington for a symbolic price of $ 146. To deliver it to the new address, he chose an unusual way - he sent the diamond by regular mail, wrapping the precious burden in coarse wrapping paper.
Currently, the stone is kept in the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution and is the main exhibit there. Now it is estimated at $ 100 million. The stone reliably protects the wide bulletproof glass. As old-timers of the institute say: "We do not protect the diamond, but people from the diamond."