Diamonds are a girl’s best friend- this cannot be truer than Sun rises in the east (Technically, it doesn’t “rise”). Many have wasted their lives for the temptations of treasures and rare diamonds. Such that they have destroyed their careers, lives, companies, marriages and many have met bloody ends.
There are numerous tales of curses attached like shadows to the most beautiful and rarest of gems. Such that these curses have made people so desperate and panicky that they met untimely and violent deaths. Although, most of the supposed curses are fabricated, to raise the value of the gem, or to get famous, whatever while some are the messengers of mis-fortune.
Here is a list of such cursed gems that have wreaked havoc in the lives of people who owned them.
1. HOPE DIAMOND:
Probably the most illustrious “cursed” gem was bought by French merchant Jean-Baptiste Tavernier in India. A obstinate myth says that he then died being torn apart by wild dogs. Tavernier, before being killed, sold the “French Blue,” to King Louis XIV and it remained with the French monarchs until the French Revolution before disappearing into history and later being re-discovered in the ownership of London diamond merchant Daniel Eliason in 1812, later acquired by King George IV, which was then sold to repay his colossal debts.
It was then passed on to the ownership of Pierre Cartier in 1909 before selling it to heiress Evalyn Walsh McLean, who felt that unlucky objects were lucky for her- but the “unlucky” things soon followed- her first-born was killed in an accident; her husband destroyed their fortune, and died in from brain atrophy, the family newspaper—The Washington Post—went bankrupt and her daughter died of an overdose. Harry Winston, who bought McLean’s entire jewellery collection, donated it to the Smithsonian Museum.
2. KOH-I-NOOR DIAMOND:
The Koh-i-Noor diamond, extracted from the Golconda mine in India served as an eye of an idol of a Hindu goddess before coming into the possession of Babur and then Shah Jahan, who then incorporated the stone into his Peacock Throne. After his imprisonment by his son, a clumsy Venetian gem cutter reduced the diamond down to 186 carats from its initial 800 carats.
While being in possession of male rulers, the “curse” of the diamond made them meet their bloody ends until 1849, when a treaty signed by the British, the diamond was transferred to Queen Victoria and it has been remained in their possession ever since; being incorporated in the Queen’s crown, as the diamond carries a curse that says only a woman can wear the diamond safely, hence no male heir to the throne has ever worn the gem and are prohibited from doing so.
By: Archa Dave
