The Hope Diamond

Hi friends, have you ever heard of the famous and legendary Diamond Hope? In addition to being beautiful and very expensive, a legend circulates about it.

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Indeed, according to legend, this diamond also known as the "Diamond of Hope", was stolen from a statue of the goddess Sita by a Hindu priest, who was later put to death for this crime.
Jean Baptiste Tavernier, a French explorer, is the first to hear about the existence of this precious stone in the 17th century.

He had been sent by the nobles of France to travel the world to find the most beautiful gemstones on the planet.

This diamond was purchased by Tavernier in the huge Golkonda diamond market under the Mughal Empire. Researchers have discovered the location of the mine from which the treasure originated, which would be located in northern India's current Andhra Pradesh.

Malediction

On December 6, 1668, the explorer returned to Versailles with the magnificent blue diamond, which immediately aroused the interest of Louis XIV, who was a great lover of rare objects. The latter had it cut to 69 carats, instead of 115 initially.

The stone has become one of the jewels of the crown of France and has been baptized "Bleu de France".

It was at this time that the diamond launched its series of evil spells.

His first victim was Jean-Baptiste Tavernier himself, who was deprived of his property and forced to go into exile in Russia where he died in the greatest poverty devoured by wild beasts.

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Nicolas Fouquet, the superintendent of finance, who borrowed the jewel for an official dinner, was convicted of embezzlement and imprisoned for life. He died in his prison.

The duke of Burgundy, heir to the jewel of the crown and his wife Marie-Adélaïde de Savoie succumbed to a malignant measles in February 1712, leaving as heir to the throne only a child who was to be the future Louis XV.

In 1770, King Louis XVI had the "Bleu de France" put on a diadem that he offered to his wife, Marie Antoinette. The princess of Lamballe, Marie-Antoinette's confidante and superintendent of her house, who often carried the stone, was massacred by a rabid Parisian crowd.

In 1793, the diamond disappeared. It was stolen by revolutionaries and then sold to jewelers in Le Havres before joining England where the stone was resized to be more easily sold.

In 1824, the jewel was bought by a London banker named Henry Thomas Hope, who paid him $ 150,000. The latter soon suffered reverses of fortune and died ruined.

Then, for sixteen years, the stone passed from hand to hand, continuing its gruesome curse.

The heirs of Hope, ruined, yielded the diamond to Jacques Collet who committed suicide.
A Russian prince, Ivan Kanitovich, then bought it, but he died assassinated.

In 1908, Turkish sultan Abdul Hamid paid 400,000 dollars for Hope and he offered it to his favorite concubine, Subaya. Shortly after, he had her executed for treason and was overthrown by a popular revolt.

Simon Montharides, a Greek merchant, then became the owner. He was the victim of a car accident, killing him instantly at the same time as his wife and granddaughter.

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In 1910, the Parisian jeweler Simon Roseneau acquired it before reselling it to Pierre Cartier who offered it to Evalyn Walsch McLean, a rich American heiress who against all odds, will end his life in loneliness and poverty.

When he died in 1949, his debts were settled with the sale of the diamond to the American jeweler Harry Winston, who donated it in 1958 to the Smithsonian Institute of Natural History in Washington.

In order to make the transport of the stone as discreet and safe as possible, Winston sent the stone to the Smithsonian by mail in a simple kraft envelope, incredible!

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If you want to admire the Diamond Hope, which is the largest blue diamond discovered to date, it is still visible at the Museum of Natural History in Washington where it has a reserved room.
It is the second most visited art object in the world after the Mona Lisa.

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Personally, I prefer to see him in photo than to go to see him in Washington because with all the misfortunes that he brought to his owners, I dare not even be in the same room as him and you?