Today, the 45-carat Hope Diamond sits safely in the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History, but the brilliant blue gem has purportedly brought death and misfortune to dozens of people associated with it over the past 400 years.
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Jean-Baptiste Tavernier
Louis XIV of France
Nicolas Fouquet
King Louis XVI of France
Marie Antoinette
Marie Thérèse Louise, Princess de Lamballe
Wilhelm Fals
Prince Ivan Kanitovski
Sultan Abdul Hamid II
Pierre Cartier
Edward Beale McLean
Evalyn Walsh McLean
James Todd
Winston's wife is seen here displaying the necklace the diamond was set into at a 1958 presentation ceremony. James Todd stands on the far left.Bettmann/Getty Images
Here, James Todd presents the package containing the diamond to Smithsonian Secretary Dr. Leonard Carmichael at the Natural History Building.Smithsonian Institution Archives
The Hope Diamond curse is one of the most enduring legends of our time. The tales of misfortune surrounding the brilliant blue gem date back nearly 400 years and involve Hindu priests, guillotines, financial woes, and car crashes.
The jewel once belonged to King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, but it vanished during the French Revolution and reappeared in London several decades later. Some of its owners met grisly ends, while others were forced to sell it to pay off debts.
But how many of these stories are true? It's possible that jewelers throughout history fabricated a fascinating backstory for the Hope Diamond to impress potential buyers and thus sell the gem for a higher price. Still, many remain convinced that the jewel is jinxed.
The diamond has been part of the Smithsonian Institution's collections since 1958, and today, it's on display at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. There haven't been many new additions to the legend of the Hope Diamond curse over the past 70 years — but that doesn't mean the jewel is done with its alleged malevolence for good.
The Origin Of The Hope Diamond Curse
David Bjorgen/Wikimedia CommonsThe Hope Diamond on display at the National Museum of Natural History.
The Hope Diamond's bloody history began in India nearly 400 years ago. Legend has it that the blue diamond once served as an eye in a statue of the Hindu deity Sita.
As the story goes, one day in the 1660s, a gem merchant named Jean-Baptiste Tavernier gouged the jewel out, keeping it for himself. When religious leaders discovered the theft, they placed a curse on the diamond.
Tavernier then took the 115-carat diamond to France, where he sold it to Louis XIV, the "Sun King." Some versions of the myth claim that Tavernier died from a fever or was mauled by dogs shortly after handing the jewel over to the monarch, but while his later life isn't well-documented, he likely lived for another 20 years.
Louis XIV had the gem cut down to 69 carats to enhance its symmetry and brilliance. Around this time, it began to be called the Blue Diamond of the Crown of France, or the French Blue.
Francois Farges/Gems & Gemology (2009)During the reign of Louis XV (1715 to 1774), the French Blue was set into an elaborate pendant.
The Sun King had several misfortunes that have been attributed to the Hope Diamond curse. All but one of his legitimate children died in childhood, and Louis himself perished from gangrene, though the purportedly jinxed jewel had been in his possession for decades by that point.
The next alleged victim of the rumored curse was Nicolas Fouquet, who served as the Superintendent of Finances in France under Louis XIV. According to myth, the king once let Fouquet wear the diamond for a special occasion. Not long after, he was sentenced to life in prison for embezzlement and treason. However, the timeline doesn't add up in this instance, as Fouquet was imprisoned in 1664 — five years before Louis came into possession of the diamond.
Then came the most famous victim of the Hope Diamond curse: Marie Antoinette.
From France's Crown Jewels To The Streets Of London
When King Louis XVI took the throne in 1774, he and his wife, Marie Antoinette, inherited France's Crown Jewels — including the French Blue. There's no evidence that the queen ever wore the gem, but that didn't stop people from associating her with the Hope Diamond curse.
Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were both executed at the guillotine in 1793, and all but one of their children died, too. But the French Blue was long gone by the time the royals lost their heads. It had been stolen amidst the chaos of the French Revolution, and it didn't reappear again for several decades.
Public DomainThe execution of Marie Antoinette in 1793.
By the 1830s, the blue gem was in the possession of British banker Philip Hope, who gave the diamond its name. Around that time, it was also cut down to its current size of 45.52 carats. And the jeweler who cut it, Wilhelm Fals, reportedly faced the wrath of the Hope Diamond curse while the gem was still in his possession: Fals' son allegedly stole the jewel, killed Fals, and then died by suicide.
The diamond was ultimately returned to Hope, but his heirs had to sell it to pay off his gambling debts. In 1908, a Turkish diamond collector named Selim Habib purchased the gem, but he had to turn around and sell it the very next year due to financial difficulties. Rumors also spread that Habib had died at sea, but these were unfounded and may have been fabricated to help later merchants sell the jewel.
In fact, the man who contributed the most to the legend of the Hope Diamond curse was Pierre Cartier of the famed French jewelry house.
Is The Hope Diamond Curse Real?
Cartier purchased the Hope Diamond in 1910, and Pierre spent the next two years trying to sell it. He found a potential buyer in American socialite Evalyn Walsh McLean, who reportedly believed that cursed objects brought her good luck.
R. Daniel Smith/Wikimedia CommonsTourists view the Hope Diamond at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
Because of this, Cartier may have exaggerated the diamond's history, making up misfortunes to attribute to the alleged jinx. As such, the Hope Diamond curse was well and alive by 1911, when The New York Times listed its most recent victims:
"Jacques Colet, who purchased it from Simon Frankel, went mad and committed suicide. Prince Ivan Kanitovski, who had it after Colet, was killed by Russian revolutionists, and Mlle. Ladue, to whom he had loaned it, was murdered by her sweetheart. Simon Moncharides, who sold it to Sultan Abdul Hamid, was thrown from [a] precipice not long afterward while riding with his wife and child, and all three were killed."
It's unclear how true any of these claims are, but they certainly influenced McLean, who purchased it for more than $300,000 in 1911, according to The New York Times. Over the next three decades, McLean's husband left her, two of her children died, and she lost much of her fortune. She passed away in 1947, and the diamond was ultimately sold to pay off her family's debts.
Jeweler Harry Winston purchased the gem, and he is the one who donated it to the Smithsonian Institution a decade later. In 1958, he shipped it in a plain brown package via registered mail. The postman who delivered it allegedly had a car accident shortly after dropping it off — and then his house burned down.
So, was it the Hope Diamond curse? Or just a coincidence?
Today, the gem is on display at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. There have been no major reports of misfortune since the institution took possession of the diamond, but rumors continue to swirl about the jewel's disturbing history.
After reading about the Hope Diamond curse, learn about the unlucky people who fell victim to the curse of King Tut. Then, go inside the $100 million Antwerp Diamond Heist.
