Curses: The Curse of the Hope Diamond

The Curse of the Hope Diamond

The Hope Diamond, named after Henry Phillip Hope, who bought the diamond and passed it down through his family line until being sold to pay family debts, it is a blue-grey diamond weighing 45.52 carats.
According to the legend, a curse was placed when the blue diamond was stolen from an idol in India. The curse foretold bad luck and death not only for the owner of the diamond but for all who touched it.

The hope diamond was originally mined in India in the 17 century, where it was purchased in a crudely cut form by Frenchman Jean Baptiste Tavernier.
Tavernier sold the stone on to King Louis XIV in 1668, who had a jeweller cut and reset the stone in gold. The diamond was then stolen in 1793 after the beheading of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.
It is thought that King George IV of England held the diamond for some time before it was sold after his death to help pay off his debts.
It was sometime after the death of King George IV that Henry Hope purchased the diamond from a private dealer.

The stone was bought in London by a dealer, who disposed of it to a buyer, one Joseph Frankels, who held the diamond until it was again sold to pay off debts.
Pierre Cartier then bought the Diamond and sold it to an American Heiress named Evalyn Walsh McLean

McLean was dealt many tragic blows in her time, her daughter died of a drug overdose, her son died in a car accident, her husband died in a sanatorium and she was forced to sell her families newspaper The Washington Post to cover crippling debts.
She died of pneumonia in 1947 and her entire collection of jewellery was sold to Harry Winston Inc.

In 1958, the diamond was donated to the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in Washington, the diamond has an estimated worth of a quarter of a Billion dollars in the U.S.

The Smithsonian claims that they have not had any effects from the curse since the diamond has been in their possession.

Written & Researched
By
Allen Tiller
first published: 17 December 2012
© 2012 Eidolon Paranormal
www.eidolonparanormal.com.au