Hope Diamond: legend or reality? (I)
Today we want to talk about a jewel whose fame – spread around the world – does not come only from its beauty. The black legend that circulates around the Hope Diamond chills everyone who knows her.
Originally it was thought to be a large sapphire, but later it was learned that it was actually a spectacular blue-hued diamond. This increased its value, as blue diamonds are extremely rare: only one in 200 thousand has this color.
The history of the diamond begins more than 600 years ago in India, when it was placed in a Buddhist temple. A hindu priest Upon seeing it, he was amazed at its beauty and stole it, with the misfortune that it was discovered and punished with torture to death. This is how a long list of deceased begins …
To follow the trail of this jewel we must go back to the seventeenth century, when a young French merchant named Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, he acquires it on one of his trips to India. He returns to Paris, where the King Louis XIV He falls in love with the diamond and proposes his purchase to Tavernier. With this deal, the merchant obtained enough money to buy a noble title and acquire a large property, but the curse had already fallen on him … Shortly after, Tavernier declares bankruptcy, being forced to flee to Russia because of his debts, where he is found dead of hypothermia and eaten by a pack of vermin.
Meanwhile, the French king had the diamond cut, turning it into “The Blue Diamond in the Crown”. Louis XIV wore it in important ceremonies in the form of a necklace. One day, Nicolas Fouquet, a government official, asks the king to borrow the diamond to attend an official ball. On the same day of the ball, Fouquet was accused of embezzlement and sent to prison, where he finally died.
Years later, the king decides to give one of his lovers with the real diamond, so she falls out of favor soon after and dies being forgotten by all. Seven years later, the ambassador of Persia makes a visit to the court of France, where Louis XIV shows him the greatness of the jewel; that same year the French king died of gangrene. His successor, Louis XV, decides to keep the diamond in a chest, perhaps that is why this king did not suffer great misfortunes.
