A while ago, the newspaper sister and everyone discussed the wedding of Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz, suspected of wearing the extremely valuable "Star of the East" diamond majestic appearance of the mother-in-law Claudia Peltz.
(Source: VOGUE)
As mentioned in the previous part, this diamond weighing 94.78 carats is not small.
The former owner was American gold miner Valyn Walsh McLean, and in addition to holding the Oriental Star, she also owned the world's most famous diamond: hope diamond Hope Diamond.
In the 1920s, she wore these two legendary diamonds, blue and white, to shine in the social circles of The American elite, adding luster to her already luxurious life.
Even, the famous lady once had the luxury to put a hope diamond on her poodle, and also held a game activity of "treasure hunting hope diamond" in her mansion manor, hiding the diamond in the corner of the mansion at will.
However, the Oriental Star and the Hope Diamond have opposite fates.
While the Oriental Star has been understated by the current Peltz family several times, the Hope Diamond has been known as the "Cursed Diamond" for more than three hundred years from its discovery in India in the mid-17th century to the present.
A considerable number of people who have touched the "cursed diamond" have died of death and unrest.
There are King Louis XVI of France and Queen Marie Antoinette, who have been sent to the guillotine, King George IV of England, who is in debt, the Hop Bank family, whose ending up in bankruptcy, and the russian prince who was assassinated.
The evil door and mystery of the hope diamond have been passed down to this day.
(People who died unnaturally after hundreds of years of contact with the diamond)
India's "Curse"
According to records, the Hope Diamond was actually cut and polished from a huge blue whole diamond weighing 115.16 carats from the 17th century Krul mine, famous for its diamonds, located in what is now southern India.
(Schematic)
Legend has it that more than 300 years ago, the diamond was discovered and then simply polished, decorated by temple monks, and inlaid with the eye of the statue of the deity.
However, locals are superstitious, believing that white and red diamonds mean good luck and blue diamonds mean bad luck and misfortune. Later, an abbot took the diamond off and resold it to a buyer in the mining area, and soon after he was "punished by heaven" and died.
(I hope that the diamond will appear bloody with ultraviolet rays)
Another written history comes from a French jeweler named Jean-Baptiste Tavernier Jean-Baptiste Tavernier.
Beginning in 1630, Tavernier traveled from France to India six times over thirty years in search of acquisitions of gemstones.
Between 1640 and 1667 (the exact number of years is unknown), Tavernier pocketed this 115.16 ct blue giant diamond, which was still in its original form, weighing 115.16 carats, and was later called "Tavenier's Blue Tavernier Blue", which was also the predecessor of the Hope Diamond.
He did not write exactly how he got the diamond, some people think he bought it from the temple abbot, others believe that he maliciously stole from the temple, so he was cursed by the temple monks that "anyone who gets the diamond must not die well".
In any case, Tavernier got the blue diamond, and when he returned to France in 1666, he packed it with a dozen other diamonds and sold it to louis XIV, king of France, for 147 kilograms of gold (about 60 million yuan) and promised aristocratic status.
Tavernier lived to be 84 years old and died in Switzerland in 1689. Although he lived a long life, according to some media reports, he was finally bitten by a wild dog.
The king who bought the diamond and his successors ended up as turbulent as the fate of the dynasty.
King of France "inverted blood mold"?
In 1673, Louis XIV ordered jewelry craftsmen to transform diamonds into stunning accessories that could represent dynasties.
The giant diamond was cut into the form of a 69-carat pigeon egg and studded in the collar ornament that the king wore on important occasions, and was named "Le Diamant bleu de la Courrone de France Royal Blue Diamond", which was later called "The French Blue of France".
The Blue of France did not bring good luck to Louis XIV. After 1670, because of the Franco-Dutch War, the Grand Alliance War, and the Franco-Spanish War, although France was very powerful at that time, the population dropped from 21 million to 19 million in a few decades, making Louis the Great who built the Palace of Versailles controversial.
(Palace of Versailles)
In addition to the problems of governing the country, several of his illegitimate sons died one after another, and he also had problems such as diabetes, fainting, and headaches, and died of illness in 1715 at the age of 77.
The "curse" followed, and the king's favorite mistress, Madame de Montespan, once wore the Blue of France.
Later, she was publicly humiliated by the Church for adultery with the king, and the king broke off relations with her in order to preserve his reputation. When Madame died in 1707, the king also forbade her children to mourn.
(Lady holding the Blue of France)
After the death of Louis XIV, his great-grandson Louis XV succeeded to the throne, and the Blue of France came into his hands. He later ordered craftsmen to transform the diamond into a pendant for the bow tie of the Knights of the Golden Fleece.
Louis XV maintained a prosperous peace in France in the early years of his reign, but later on he was criticized for his indecisive and contradictory character in the Seven Years' War with England and the Kingdom of Prussia, and finally signed the Treaty of Paris, abandoning the colonies of India, Canada, and the West Bank of Mississippi.
In 1774, Louis XV died of smallpox.
Louis XV died, and his grandson Louis XVI, who was less than 20 years old, succeeded to the throne, and the French feudal monarchy that lasted for a thousand years came to an end.
Debt, financial crises, and food shortages stand in stark contrast to the extravagance of Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette. Louis XVI also gave the queen the blue of France, which should have represented the pride of the king's power, to play with at will.
The French Revolution began in 1789, and on January 21, 1793, the 38-year-old Louis XVI was guillotineed.
On October 16, the 37-year-old queen was executed at the guillotine in Revolution Square.
The Blue of France, along with other precious jewels, was taken away by the intruders of the royal palace during the French Revolution. Although the French government later recovered many items, the Blue of France disappeared from the stage of history like the fate of the feudal dynasty.
The British die when they touch it?
The Blue of France, which disappeared after the French Revolution, was eventually sold to the Dutch jeweler Wilhelm Fals.
Because 69 carats were too conspicuous to sell, his rough cut was reduced to 45.52 carats, which is what we see today.
However, Wilhelm's son Hendrick stole his father's diamond because of his debts and sold it to a businessman named Francis Beaulieu to pay off the debt.
All three ended in a bizarre ending, with Wilhelm dying alive, his son Hendrick committing suicide, and Francis selling the diamond to British jeweler Daniel Eliasson before he could receive the payment and was found dead in a hotel bed with a high fever.
It was not until 1812, after 20 years of litigation, that the jeweler Eliason finally dared to sell the diamond publicly in a jewelry advertisement in London.
In the end, the diamond was bought by King George IV of England( the price unknown) who indulged in luxury, and the diamond was set on the collar. Eliassen, the jeweler who sold it, later committed suicide due to a financial crisis.
(When George IV was a prince)
George IV contributed to art and architecture during his reign, but was hated by the people for his poor marriage to his wife Caroline and his little concern for government, leaving the royal family disgraced.
In 1817, his only married daughter, Princess Charlotte, died in childbirth, his wife died in 1821, and he died in 1830 at the age of 58.
(George IV suspected of wearing a diamond)
Because he had too much debt during his lifetime, the royal family could only sell his jewelry to pay off the debt.
In 1830, The London banker Henry Philip Hop Herny Philip Hope took the diamond, which had been drifting in history for more than a hundred years, and named it Hope Diamond. Hope means hope, so everyone also calls it hope diamond.
But from the end of the Hoppe family who touched the diamond, hope is not hopeful...
After the early death of Henry Philip Hope's only son, he also sailed west in 1839. After his death, the property and diamond collection were left to his nephew Henry Thomas Hope. After Thomas's death, it was left to his grandson Sir Francis Hope.
(Jazz)
With the title of nobility on his head and the inheritance of the Diamond of Hope, Francis is not good at managing money and loves to gamble everywhere.
After marrying American theater singer May Yohé in 1894, he intensified his efforts, selling real estate and art, and after bankruptcy in 1901, he sold the Hope Diamond to the British jeweler Adolf Will.
In 1904, Francis and his wife divorced, and both eventually died in extreme poverty.
(Singer May)
By this time, the legend of the curse of the Hope Diamond was already very famous. British jeweler Adolf Will may have been genuinely frightened and quickly resold it to American jeweler Simon Frankel for the equivalent of 32 million yuan today.
From India to France, to Britain, and now across the Atlantic to the United States, the 20th century began, and the "curse" of hope diamonds was not over.
Dead dead, crazy crazy
It is reported that shortly after the diamond arrived in the United States, Simon made a gimmick in order to speculate in price, and in 1908, he sold the hope diamond to Salemon Habibo, a diamond collector in the Ottoman Empire at that time, for the equivalent of 87 million yuan now.
It is said that Habibo was a diamond of hope purchased on behalf of Sultan Abdul Hamid II of the Ottoman Empire at that time.
However, after buying the diamonds, in 1909, the II was abolished, and the collector Habibo drowned in a French shipwreck.
(II)
Simon bought the diamonds back again and sold them to the French banker Zach Clay, but Clay went crazy and committed suicide not long after.
After he committed suicide, the diamonds were purchased by the Russian prince Ivan Kanitwski. The prince lends the diamond to the actor's girlfriend, Lauren Rad, to wear it, only to be shot and killed the first time she wore it on stage. The prince was also assassinated by Russian revolutionaries in Paris shortly afterwards, and died.
(Actor Lauren)
At this time, Simon recycled the diamonds and sold them several times to the Persian jewelry merchant Rosno.
Simon, a New York diamond merchant who made a lot of money by reselling a premium, his final outcome was: the Great Depression of 1929, bankruptcy and the street...
In 1909, the Persian jewelry merchant Rossno bought the Hope Diamond and in 1910 sold it to pierre Cartier, a famous French jeweler.
Earlier, Cartier had sold the "Oriental Star" mentioned by the most senior newspaper sister to The American gold mine celebrity Valyn Walsh McLean, and now he has begun to sell the Hope Diamond.
Cartier wrapped the story of the diamond in a very legendary mystery, and later designed it into a modern and fashionable necklace.
At that time, the famous woman was only 25 years old, and her husband Edward was only 22 years old, although Edward's mother strongly opposed the fear of curses, the young couple had no taboo about the curse legend, and said that it was a curse for others, and it was a lucky diamond for them, so they did not believe in this evil.
However, it may still be worried about the power of the "curse", and the two parties agreed at the time of the transaction that if the family had an accident within six months of getting the diamond, Cartier would refund the money in full.
The final transaction amount was between RMB33.33 million and RMB58.26 million.
Just got the six months of the Hope Diamond, the famous lady and his wife spent it safely. For ten years, she held various parties wearing the Hope Diamond and the Oriental Star, took many photos, and lived a wanton life. However, presumably the "curse" only skipped the famous woman first, and first laid the hand on the family.
(Celebrity and husband)
Shortly after the hope diamond arrived home, the mother-in-law who advised her not to buy it died of illness.
In 1919, her 9-year-old son was killed in a car accident.
In 1929, her husband Edward openly cheated, and the two divorced in 1932.
In 1933, Edward was admitted to a mental hospital due to insanity caused by alcoholism, which led to the mismanagement of his Washington Post being auctioned off, and he died of illness in the hospital in 1941.
In 1946, The only surviving daughter of The Lady died of an overdose of sleeping pills at the age of 25.
In 1947, Mingyuan died of pneumonia at the age of 60. At the time of her death, she was also in debt.
In her will, the woman stipulated the ownership of the property, cash and diamonds, requiring people to be 25 years old before they could dispose of it. However, because she was in too much debt, the heirs asked the court to sell the property in advance to pay off the debt.
In 1949, the famous lady's jewelry collection was auctioned in New York and was auctioned by the well-known jeweler Harry Winston, including the Hope Diamond and the Oriental Star, which was later collected by brooklyn Beckham's wife, the Peltz family.
(Oriental Star)
This blue-and-white diamond became Harry Winston's signature and has been exhibited across the United States for many years.
By 1958, at the strong recommendation of american mineralogist George Minder, Harry Winston donated the Hope Diamond to the Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
Winston publicly mailed the diamonds to the U.S. Postal Service and was praised for his generous support for ore research.
However, the final "curse" was "manifested" for a while. The unlucky man this time was a courier named James Todd.
(Envelope mailed at the time)
It was reported that after he transported the hope diamond to the museum, he suffered a series of car accidents, injuring his legs and brain, and then his wife died prematurely, and the family's house burned down...
Glass brittle
After donating the Hope Diamond, Harry Winston, known as the "King of Diamonds", continued to be active in the jewelry industry for 20 years, and died at home in 1978 at the age of 82 due to a heart attack.
His family business remains a top gem merchant to this day, with a steady stream of celebrity clients.
Elizabeth taylor
Marilyn Monroe
Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton, Niu Jie
In 2014, the company also spent 153 million yuan to buy another 13.22 ct beautiful blue diamond, named "Winston's Blue".
Nowadays, the owner of the hope diamond has become a non-profit public museum, which is a common treasure of the common people.
In the past sixty years, because of its arrival, the museum has received a lot of gemstone donations, which has played a very important role in public education.
(The museum insured it for 1.6 billion yuan)
For more than three hundred years, Hope Diamond has traveled to many dynasties and wealthy families, witnessing the history of many countries and individuals.
How brilliant their time was, how quickly they went downhill. On the contrary, those who voluntarily give up their wealth will have a good ending, which is intriguing.
The kings and princes, celebrities and nobles who regard diamonds as treasures and playthings are all the most shining big people in those times, but fate is so cruel and cruel.
This blue diamond, which was formed 1.1 billion years ago according to research, probably best understands what is called "the good things in the world are not firm, and the clouds are easy to scatter and the glass is brittle." ”