The Hope Diamond's curse

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• India, France, Britain and the United States · Jewellers' and newspaper lore

  The Hope Diamond's curse

  The curse of the Hope

  Told, never investigated

  

  In 1911 The New York Times wrote that "probably no jewel ever had a more sinister history" than the Hope diamond, and newspapers of the time tied it to the misfortunes of its owners. Smithsonian Magazine says the curse was promoted by the jeweller Pierre Cartier to sell the stone to the Washington socialite Evalyn Walsh McLean, who bought it in 1911, and that the Smithsonian has held it since Harry Winston gave it in 1958. The museum's curators dismiss the curse, though some owners, Marie Antoinette among them, did meet cruel fates.

  Earliest written source: The New York Times, 28 January 1911, as quoted by Smithsonian Magazine. A 1908 Washington Post article is cited by the Smithsonian's Richard Kurin but was not opened

  Smithsonian Magazine, "Urban legends about the Smithsonian" (archived)

  Tradition · not evidence