HOPE DIAMOND: LEGEND OR REALITY? (III)

We continue the story of one of the most famous diamonds in the world, with the last part of its dark legend.

After belonging to the Greek Simon Montarides, the diamond became king of turkey, who gave it to his wife, Subaya Hamid. A few days later, she was murdered at the hands of her husband; however, he had no better luck, since he lost the throne and ended up imprisoned until his last days. Following these events, the diamond disappeared into the ocean, reappearing after long years of searching in a French bank vault, which inexplicably went bankrupt. It was in this bank where the editor of the Washington Post, whose wife contracted a serious illness that led to her death, while their son perished under the wheels of a carriage.

In 1910, the owner of the jewel was the jeweler P. Cartier, who decides to sell it to the McLean family, on which multiple misfortunes fell. One of the eight-year-old sons was run over. One of the daughters died from an overdose of sleeping pills, while her father died in a psychiatric hospital where he was hospitalized due to severe depression; and thus practically all the members of this family were dying …

In 1949, Harry Winston, an American diamond jeweler, bought the Hope Diamond He polished it by making some geometric cuts to increase its shine, and exhibited it in different museums and institutes in the USA. That same year, he donated it to the National Museum of Natural History in Washington. The museum took some time to accept it for fear that it would bring the curse to the city.

Finally, the museum accepted the exhibition of the jewel, and its visits doubled from one day to the next, becoming the most visited object in the world after the Mona Lisa. Apparently, the postman who brought the diamond to the museum was run over, his wife died of a heart attack upon hearing the news of her husband’s death, their house burned down and their dog died of suffocation.

Currently, the Hope Diamond It is on display in the Harry Winston Pavilion, where it is admired by some seven million people a year.

The Hope Diamond has been a great source of inspiration for creatives, entrepreneurs, screenwriters, etc. We can see this great gem in movies, series, dolls … a treasure!