On This Day: ‘Cursed’ Hope Diamond is donated to Smithsonian Museum in Washington

NOVEMBER 10, 1958: The reputedly cursed 17th century Hope Diamond was donated to Washington’s Smithsonian Institution by eccentric jeweller Harry Winston on this day in 1958.

The Manhattan millionaire, whose name features in the song Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend, sent the £155million gem by post after wrapping it in brown paper.

The giant inch-wide jewel, which is said to have been cursed after being plucked from a statue of a Hindu goddess in India, had been owned by Winston since 1949.

Since then the gem, which at one point was owned by King Louis XIV before being stolen again during the French Revolution, was worn for charity and toured the globe.

A British Pathé newsreel from 1957 shows the unique 45-carat blue stone on display in Amsterdam, the diamond trading capital of the world.

Though some believe Winston donated the diamond to rid himself of the curse, the jeweller insisted that he just wanted the U.S. to have a permanent gem collection.

But the jewel’s long history is nevertheless intriguing – and there is certainly plenty of evidence of misfortune surrounding those who kept it.

The legend of the curse begins in 1642 when French explorer Jean Baptiste Tavernier stole the 112-carat diamond from the forehead of a statue of the Hindu goddess Sita.

He was reputedly torn apart by wild dogs while on a trip to Russia after selling the gem – and 1,166 others – to King Louis XIV of France.

The blue diamond was recut to 67 carats to enhance its brilliance and remained in the family until reign of his great great great grandson Louis XVI ended in 1792.

While the extravagant absolute monarch and his wife Queen Marie Antoinette were awaiting execution during the French Revolution the crown jewels were robbed.

Most of the other gems stored at the Garde-Meuble were recovered, Le Bijou du Roi – or King’s Jewel – was not.

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It is understood to have resurfaced in London in 1813 and was owned by a jeweller Daniel Eliason until he sold it to King George IV in 1823 to pay off his debts.

The gem, which had been recut to its present 45 carats, is alleged to have then been stolen by the British monarch’s mistress Lady Conygham following his death in 1830.

It reappeared in 1839 in the gem catalogue of wealthy London banker Henry Philip Hope, whose death later that year sparked a bitter inheritance feud by his children.

Hope, from whom the diamond took its current name, is believed to have paid between £20,000 and £32,000 for it.

The gem remained in the family until 1901 when Lord Francis Hope sold it for just £29,000 to pay off gambling debts after the once-rich family had gone bankrupt.

Diamond dealer Adolph Weil sold it on to American jeweller Simon Frankel for an alleged $250,000, which was then worth £50,000 (or £44.5million in today’s money).

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It eventually ended in the hands of renowned French jeweller Pierre Cartier, who sold in on to wealthy American mining heiress and socialite Evalyn Walsh McLean.

Mrs McLean, who hung the gem around the neck of her Great Dane, Mike, during wild  parties, bizarrely believed the gem’s bad reputation would bring her good luck.

Yet her first born son, Vinson, died in a car crash when he was only nine and her daughter, Evalyn Washington McLean, committed suicide at age 25.

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And her husband, Edward, who was heir to a publishing fortune, died was later declared insane and died in a mental institution in 1941.

She was also conned out of $100,000 by former FBI agent Gaston Means.

Following her death in 1947, she left the blue gem to her grandchildren but – perhaps fearing they would be cursed – they decided to sell it for $1million.

Winston, who bought the jewel two years later and never believed the claims about a hex, is perhaps the exception to the legend of the Curse of the Hope Diamond.

He died from a heart attack in 1978 aged 82 after a life time of good fortune that began when at 12 he bought a 25-cent emerald from a pawn shop and sold it for $800.

The jewellery firm he started, Harry Winston Diamond Corporation, recently sold its retail arm to Swatch for $1billion.

And the gem he donated, which is viewed by thousands of people a week, is now estimated to be worth £155million.