Ask around and you will find the most famous and most cursed gemstone is – The Hope diamond. Weighting in at 45.52 carats, this diamond has quite the history. We can start with this stone becoming the possession of the Smithsonian Museum. It was 1958 and believe it or not many people believed the Smithsonian should turn down the diamond because of its alleged curse. For instance, the postman who delivered the diamond was supposedly subject to a lot of bad luck, His wife died, his leg was crushed, his dog was killed and his house burned down. I believe that later this story actually was found to be made up to entice buyers, but there have been some factual bad luck surrounding the diamond.
The curse supposedly began when it was stolen from a Sita Idol in india. The people of India believed that gemstones had protective powers, so they were very conservative with cutting them. The Hope Diamond started out being 112 ct. The bigger the better and the more protection. As much as the stone could hold. It was acquired in the mid 1600 by John Baptiste a French diamond merchant and it eventually became the property of King Louis XIV of France, At that time it was whittled down to 67 carats. It was passed down as part of the crown jewels and then went missing for about 20 years.
The Hope diamond showed up as a smaller 45 carat diamond in about 1812 and was sold again to King George IV. The King died in 1830 and it was sold to satisfy his debts to Henry Phillip Hope. Be it greed and bad choices or a curse most of the owners of the Hope diamond fell on financial hardship and either had to sell the gem or lost it in bankruptcy.
Probably, the most recent story of the curse was when it was sold to Evalyn and Ned McLean in 1910. They were truly one of the richest families in America owning, banks, real estate and The Washington Post. Evalyn wore the diamond to extravagant parties until 1919 when her 10 year old son was hit by a car and died. Rumors of the curse ensued and perhaps encouraged some of the bad luck that followed. Evalyn’s husband Ned went insane and the Washington Post was lost in bankruptcy. In 1946 Evalyn’s daughter committed suicide and Evalyn died in 1947.
The diamond was sold to Harry Winston and then became property of the Smithsonian, where the curse has evidently been lifted as the Hope diamond is now considered luck to the Smithsonian. Due to the generosity of Harry Winston and others many gemstones now are on display in the Harry Winston auditorium.