This Diamond is as Cold as Ice: The Curse of the Hope Diamond

By | October 8, 2018

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Visitors flock to the Harry Winston exhibition Hall to see the Hope diamond with 45.52 carats in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington,D.C. on January 13, 2012. The Hope Diamond has been returned to its original Cartier setting.

The Hope Diamond, a magnificent 45.52-carat blue diamond, has a reputation for being unusual, breathtaking and expensive but it is also equally known for the curse that is said to surround the gem. Many, though not all, of the diamonds former owners, have experienced odd strokes of bad luck when they were in possession of the diamond, though other owners seemed to have escaped the gem’s violent curse. Here we will take a look at the curse of the Hope Diamond, some of the gem’s victims, and some who have dodged the curse. 

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The Curse Begins

According to legend, Jean Baptiste Tavernier, a French merchant traveling through India in 1653, spotted the blue diamond – and a matching twin that has never been discovered – in a Hindu statue where the pair was serving as the idol’s eyes. Tavernier plucked one of the gems from idol’s eye and made his way back to Europe with it. The Hindu priests were outraged that anyone would desecrate their idol so they cursed whoever owned the rare stone. Tavernier sold the blue diamond to King Louis XIV and then retired to Russia. There, according to some stories, he was mauled to death by a pack of dogs.