Hope diamond

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The Hope Diamond, 1974

The Hope Diamond is one of the most famous and most legendary diamonds in the world.

history

Evalyn Walsh McLean with the Hope Diamond, 1914

The 45.52 carat (9.104 g) blue diamond was found in the 17th century by the merchant Jean-Baptiste Tavernier in a tributary of the Kooleron ( Guntur , Andhra Pradesh , India ). Presumably in 1668 it came into the possession of the French kings Louis XIV and later Louis XVI. , but was stolen during the French Revolution and disappeared from contemporary history for a few years.

It wasn't until 1830 that there was a possible trace again when an uncut blue diamond was put up for sale in England. The British banker and avid jewelry collector Henry Philip Hope acquired this stone for 18,000 pounds. The famous diamond was later to be named after his family, who owned it for over 50 years. After Hope's death, his three nephews fought a bitter battle over his jewelery collection.

After years of litigation, Henry Thomas Hope was awarded the Hope Diamond and seven other jewels. In his possession the blue diamond was exhibited in the Great Exhibition in London in 1841 and in the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1855 . After Henry Thomas Hope died, his wife Adele inherited the precious piece of jewelry. She owned him for 24 years before she died.

The subsequent owner was thus the grandson of Adele and Henry Thomas Hope, who was named Lord Francis Hope. He got into debt because of his exuberant lifestyle. Selling the stone was not possible for him because the stone was protected from being pledged by his grandmother's inheritance. He then went to court to obtain a resolution to sell the diamond. This decision was only announced in 1901, when his then wife May Yohé had already given him energetic financial support. After the diamond was sold in 1902, his wife left him and got a divorce.

Through the sale of the diamond by Lord Francis Hope, the diamond came into the possession of Pierre Cartier , who resold it to Evalyn Walsh McLean . She had owned the diamond for over 30 years before she died in 1947.

Two years later, the American jeweler Harry Winston became the new owner. He sent it to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC as a gift on November 8, 1958, in an insured mail package . The stone can be viewed to this day in the National Museum of Natural History .

Today the diamond is valued at around $ 200 million to $ 250 million.

Legends

According to legend , the diamond belonged to the statue of the Indian deity Vishnu . When the treasure was stolen from her, the deity is said to have prophesied misfortune to the future owners. Louis XV carried it and reportedly died of smallpox . Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette carried it and ended up under the guillotine .

In fact, the finder Tavernier was not torn apart by wild animals, as legend has it, but died of a cold at the age of over 80. Louis XIV's tenure was one of the longest in history; after he came into possession of the diamond, he ruled for over 40 years. The misfortune stayed away from the namesake himself.

Evalyn Walsh McLean, always cited as the worst example of the curse, suffered severe blows of fate, but these either took place before the acquisition or corresponded to the lifestyle of rich people at the time (alcoholism, divorce) or the death statistics, the first eight years of the decades of ownership there was no stroke of fate at all. The husband of their tragically deceased only daughter was widowed twice before his fifth wife died without ever having had the diamond. Walsh McLean eventually died of pneumonia himself, which was not uncommon at the time.

Color and phosphorescence

The bluish coloration of the stone is mainly caused by a small amount of boron , which replaces the carbon in a few positions of the crystal lattice , whereby light absorption occurs in the visible range of the electromagnetic wave spectrum , more precisely in the yellow wavelength range, the complementary color of blue.

For a long time it was thought that the Hope was the only diamond that was capable of phosphorescence . There was also speculation about a connection to the above-mentioned curse of the Hope diamond. According to the latest research, however, all blue diamonds are able to “glow afterwards”, but the Hope diamond stands out with its intense reddish phosphorescence, which can last up to a minute. This is probably also caused by boron in interaction with nitrogen atoms , which are also distributed to a small extent in the crystal lattice. An exchange of electrons takes place between boron and nitrogen , which was initiated beforehand by the incident light in intermediate steps. As a result, the boron atoms are negatively charged and the nitrogen atoms are positively charged, the exchange creates a charge balance and the energy released during the exchange can be observed as reddish radiation.

education

According to a study published in 2020, the diamond could have been formed more than 660 kilometers underground, in the Earth's lower mantle . That would be more than three times as deep as most other diamonds.

documentary

  • The Curse of the Hope Diamond. Documentary and docu-drama , USA, Great Britain, 2010, 43 min., Written and directed: Mark Radice, Simon Berthon, production: Blink Films, Off the fence, Smithsonian Channel, ZDF , arte , Channel 4 , National Geographic , NHK , Phoenix German first broadcast: June 1, 2011 at arte, table of contents by arte.

Cinematic reception

  • In the movie Titanic by James Cameron , a diamond plays an important role, called the "Heart of the Ocean". It is mentioned that it is worth more than the Hope diamond.
  • In the South Park episode Obama's Eleven , the Ocean's Eleven- style diamond is stolen by a thief team led by Barack Obama and John McCain.
  • In the television series Leverage , the thief Parker claims that she stole the diamond and brought it back “out of boredom”.
  • The fifth season of the television series White Collar is about the search for the alleged twin of the Hope Diamond.
  • In the film Zombieland: Twice as good as two, the diamond acts as an engagement ring for the characters Columbus and Wichita .
  • In the anime Black Butler (season 1), the diamond was split to break its curse. The main character Ciel wears a splinter in the form of an inherited ring on his finger.

See also

literature

  • Marian Fowler: Hope. Adventures of a Diamond. Ballatine Books, New York NY 2002, ISBN 0-345-44486-8 .
  • Janet Hubbard-Brown: The Curse of the Hope Diamond (= An Avon Camelot Book. History mystery. ). Avon, New York NY 1991, ISBN 0-380-76222-6 .
  • Richard Kurin: The Hope Diamond: Gem, Jewel, and Icon. In: Amy Henderson, Adrienne L. Kaeppler (Eds.): Exhibiting Dilemmas. Issues of Representation at the Smithsonian. Smithsonian Institute Press, Washington DC et al. 1997, ISBN 1-56098-690-5 , pp. 47-69.
  • Richard Kurin: Hope Diamond. The Legendary History of a Cursed Gem. HarperCollins Publishers & Smithsonian Press et al., New York NY et al. 2006, ISBN 0-06-087351-5 .
  • Robert C. Marley: Inspector Swanson and the Curse of the Hope Diamond. Dryas, Frankfurt am Main 2014, ISBN 978-3-940855-53-4 .
  • Susanne Steinem Patch: Blue Mystery. The Story of the Hope Diamond. Revised edition. Abrams, New York NY 1999, ISBN 0-8109-2797-7 .
  • Edwin W. Streeter: The Great Diamonds of the World. Their History and Romance. Collected from official, private and other sources during many Years of Correspondence and Inquiry. Edited and annotated by Joseph Hatton and AH Keane. 2nd Edition. George Bell & Sons, London 1882.

Web links

Commons : Hope Diamond  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Documentary film The Curse of Hope Diamond at arte , June 1, 2011.
  2. ^ UV Rays Shed New Light on the Hope Diamond's Mysterious Red Glow ( Memento August 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) - Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
  3. Gem: Hope Diamond could have come from the lower mantle. Retrieved June 26, 2020 .