Hope Diamond $250 Million, Among the most romanticized jewels in the world, the Hope Diamond is housed at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and considered the second-most visited piece of art in the world (behind the “Mona Lisa”). Discovered in India in 1812, the 45.52-carat blue-gray stone has had many owners over the years, including Harry Winston, Pierre Cartier, and Lord Francis Hope, for whom it is named.The diamond is also said to be cursed—including the alleged suicides of several of its owners—though it appears to be more of a mythic notion than one based on evidence.
The Hope Diamond, also known as “Le bleu de France” or “Le Bijou du Roi”, is a large, 45.52-carat (9.10 g), deep-blue diamond, now housed in the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in Washington, D.C. It is blue to the n*ked eye because of trace amounts of boron within its crystal structure, but exhibits red phosphorescence after exposure to ultraviolet light.
It is classified as a Type IIb diamond, and is notorious for supposedly being cursed. It has a long recorded history with few gaps in which it changed hands numerous times on its way from India to France to Britain and to the United States. It has been described as the “most famous diamond in the world” and is said to be the second most-visited artwork in the world, after the Mona Lisa.
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