A history of hopelessness follows the stories associated with the world-renowned Hope Diamond. The sapphire-like dark blue diamond attracts much attention for its uncommon beauty. However, the tragic tales of the diamond’s former owners may gather more attention than the priceless jewel itself.
The diamond, originally mined in India, began with a curse. A thief supposedly stole the diamond from the eyes of a statue of the Hindu goddess Sita, wife of Rama.
Later, a traveling French merchant, Jean Baptiste Tavernier, sold the diamond to King Louis XV of France in 1688. Louis decorated the 45.52- carat diamond, described by some as a “beautiful violet,” with 14 large diamonds and several smaller ones.
King Louis gave the beautiful diamonds, set in gold and suspended on a neck ribbon, to his wife, Marie Antoinette.
Antoinette, the first official owner of the diamond, was beheaded.
This unlucky blow for Marie Antoinette might hardly justify the legend of the Curse of the Hope Diamond, but the startling chain of events associated with the diamond doesn’t stop there.
The Hope was linked to another tragic chain of events in 1830. Supposedly, a jeweler who was cutting the diamond died of grief after learning that his son had stolen the diamond.
After his father died, the son committed suicide.
The man who found the diamond in the suicidal son’s belongings is rumored to have died the next day.
The diamond reappears in history in 1839, in an entry in the gem collection catalog of Henry Phillip Hope, the man who gave the Hope Diamond its name.
The story of the Hope doesn’t stop there. Later, an eastern European prince gave the unlucky diamond to an actress of the Folies Bergere, who was shot on stage by the same prince during her first on-stage appearance with the Hope.
After buying the diamond, a Greek owner and his wife plunged to their death after driving off a cliff in an automobile accident.
Later, a Turkish sultan had owned the gem for only a few months before losing his throne because of an army revolt in 1909.
Eventually, the diamond was sold to Evelyn Walsh, who believed that anything that brought bad luck to other people brought her good luck.
Although the diamond did not affect Walsh personally, her family suffered a sequence of misfortunes, including the death of Walsh’s brother, son and daughter.
Eventually, the historically tragic diamond was sold to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. in 1958.
Visitors of the museum can view the famous diamond without the risking the tragic fate of the owners of the Hope.
