The Hope Diamond and its curse

The most famous cursed gem on earth, free to visit

The Hope Diamond weighs 45.52 carats, the largest known blue diamond in the world, and it has been in the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington since 1958. It most likely came from the Kollur Mine in the Golconda region of India, and the rough stone it was cut from is thought to have weighed almost 115 carats. The French gem merchant Jean-Baptiste Tavernier obtained it on one of his voyages to India and sold it to Louis XIV in 1668, and it was cut into the French Blue of the French Crown Jewels.

During the French Revolution, in 1792, the French Blue was stolen and vanished from the records. A blue diamond of the same shape, size and colour was recorded in London in September 1812, held by the diamond merchant Daniel Eliason, two days after the twentieth anniversary of the theft, just as the statute of limitations took effect. Recut, it took its name from Henry Philip Hope and appeared in the Hope family's gem catalogue of 1839. Its dark greyish blue comes from trace amounts of boron, and under ultraviolet light it glows red.

The curse came much later. Some owners, Marie Antoinette among them, did meet cruel fates, but the idea that the stone was cursed became prominent only in the early 20th century, as a marketing ploy by the jeweller Pierre Cartier to sell it to Evalyn Walsh McLean, a Washington socialite and scion of a Colorado gold fortune. She bought it in 1911 for $300,000. Her husband ran off with another woman, her son was struck and killed by a car and her daughter died of a drug overdose, and the legend grew. Her obituary in the Times said she loved the diamond and ignored the dismal legends.

After McLean died in 1947, Harry Winston bought her entire jewel collection, the Hope included, from her estate in 1949, and showed it around the world in his travelling Court of Jewels before giving it to the museum. On 10 November 1958 it arrived by registered mail in a small brown parcel marked FRAGILE, for a total fee of $145.29. The postal worker who delivered it, James Todd, broke a leg, lost his wife and his dog and had his house burn down the following year, and took it in stride: if the hex was meant for the owners, he said, the public should be having the bad luck. Museum curators dismiss the curse, and the stone draws millions of visitors a year.