CURSED: The Hope Diamond

Hello you! Apologies in advance for the croaky tone of this week's episode, but sickness aside I am so excited to chat with you about the Hope Diamond. Renowned for its beauty, string of unfortunate events and possible curse, this stone has seen its fair share of action from French kings to Gilded Age heiresses! But what do you think, is it cursed or simply a matter of coincidence? Let me know in the comments! Shout out to our incredible researcher Grace McCamish for pulling this together, and if you're wanting more Hot History you can follow along on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.instagram.com/hothistoryclub/?hl=en, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.tiktok.com/@hot.history?lang=en and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@hot.history and of course, right here! Til next week, Ainslie x

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Hello to all of you. If you are watching on video right now, then you will realise, yes, I am in my pyjamas. And yes, this slight nasally twinge to my Australian accent does indicate that I am unwell. And yes, in my pyjamas was the only way that this episode was going to be filmed to get to you guys on Friday. So I thought I'd invite you all to indulge with me on this day. Get in your comfy's, get in your jarmies, put your robe on, your glass of wine, your cup of tea, your chocolate, however you like to celebrate, right? We are gonna have a cosy, hot historical Friday. No heels, we've got our slippers on, we've got our jarmies on,

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  and we're gonna have the best time talking about, like, lost, stolen, cursed jewels.

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  What could be better? Roll the tape.

• 1:07Speaker 00

  Welcome back as always to Hot History, your corner of the internet where we cover all the things in history that you probably should know but don't. I'm Ainslie Harvey, your hot historian here, ready to chat about the most cursed jewel in history, the Hope Diamond. Spanning from the kings of France to Gilded Age heiresses and now locked down in the Smithsonian for safekeeping, this is a story with as many twists and turns as a Netflix miniseries. So let's get into it by rewinding it all the way back to 1650 to the Kolom Mine in the Gokonda region of India. Now, this was one of the most prolific mines in history, operating between the 16th and 19th centuries and producing some of the most famous diamonds

• 1:52Speaker 00

  in history, including the Kobi Knorr, which we will talk about later, best believe, the Olaf Diamond, which was set into the Russian Imperial scepter, the Regent Diamond, which sustained Hitler's invasion of Paris, and the Darya Yenor, which makes up a part of the Iranian crown jewels we spoke about two weeks ago. The Hope Diamond, however, is by far the most famous to come out of this mine. Discovered at some point around 1619, the flawless VS1 bright blue type 2B diamond is amongst the rarest and most valuable gem on earth, guys. So rare that these types of diamonds make up less than 0.1% of all natural diamonds.

• 2:37Speaker 00

  While the stone currently sits at 45.52 carats, it was first purchased as an uncut, an unpolished stone at an astonishing 115 carats, guys. Absolutely fucking colossal. And stones this big are almost entirely unheard of. And the fact it was blue, which pink Kimberley diamonds say are the second most rare natural diamond colour in the world after red is insane. Just for context on how big this thing is, the current cushioned, cut-down version of the Hope is around four times the size of Hailey Bieber's first engagement ring.

• 3:16Speaker 00

  So even the like current smaller version is massive, but at 115 carats, the original raw stone we're talking about now is like a proper handful of diamond.

• 3:30Speaker 00

  Now, if you're watching on Spotify or YouTube and thinking, where have I seen this thing before? Or if you're listening and thinking, I feel like I've heard of a like cursed kind of fancy blue diamond, well then chances are you've seen Titanic. That's right, the Hope Diamond first launched into the pop culture zeitgeist with Kate Winslet's character Rose, who wears the Heart of the Ocean necklace, which was gifted to her by her fiancee Cal and later, you know, tossed into the wreckage at the end by old Rose. And while the Heart of the Ocean may be a fictional diamond, it does strongly resemble the Hope, both in looks and history, with its providence from the Kings of France and of course, the curse element.

• 4:12Speaker 00

  After all, it was on board the most famous shipwreck in history, or at least in the movie, anyway. A fun fact, before we get into the real hope, Asprey and Gerard made a real version of the Heart of the Ocean, which was sold at auction for 2.2 million US dollars in 1998, with the proceeds going to Princess Diana's AIDS Relief Fund. A bit of fun, hot history trivia for you guys. You can go around, next time you're watching, you know, Titanic, or something comes up about Titanic, you can drop that little gem. But let's get into the hope. So while its actual geological history obviously goes back millions of years, we're looking at it from the 1650s to 1660s onward, when it was first purchased from India.

• 4:55Speaker 00

  And the lucky, or unlucky, pending on whether you believe the so-called curse or not, man to pick this baddie up was Jean Baptiste Tvenier. Born in 1605, he became one of France's most successful merchants and jewellers, frequently picking up stones of different varieties throughout India, including at the Golconda Mine. Now, the details of the acquisition of this stone, as the majority of them at this time were, are quite hazy. There's no real documentation of exactly how he got it, or how much he paid for it. But what we do know is that Tvenier took at least five different trips in the late 1600s, one of which was to the hope, which he called the Tvenier Blue,

• 5:41Speaker 00

  carrying it back across the high seas in his pocket for months on end, for one very special client. Grander than grand, with an ego larger than Trump and Kanye West combined, there was only one man that Tvenier Blue would be fit for: King Louis XIV. Now, before we get into his role with the stone, we have to address the already alluded two elephant in the room, right? The curse. Now, I wouldn't say that I'm, like, particularly woo-woo, but even I have to admit that what's about to transpire feels like a little more than coincidence here. And when rumours of how Tvenier actually acquired the stone began floating around,

• 6:21Speaker 00

  it's easy to see why. So, the tale goes that Tvenier didn't purchase the stone at all. Instead, he stole the Hope Diamond from the eye of a statue of a Hindu deity, which is obviously, one, illegal, and two, sacrilegious. An act which supposedly unleashed a curse on any who owned it. And let me tell y'all, I've watched enough Indiana Jones and Tomb Raider to know that's no dice. No, thank you. But back to the king. Now, he acquired the Tvenier Blue when he returned to Paris in 1668, along with 14 other large diamonds which he planned to use as an ornamental curiosity to reflect his status as the Sun King.

• 7:04Speaker 00

  After all, what says, "Looky here, I'm a huge, giant, flaming narcissist" like a Gargantuan natural blue diamond being used for no apparent reason? Now, according to court documents, King Louis reportedly paid a whopping 120,000 livres for the stone, which he had set in gold and mounted on a stick. Renamed then the Royal Blue, it was stored in the king's cabinet of curiosities at the Sae, where he showed it to special guests. It was, of course, stunning. However, it was uncut, lacking a lot of the shine and spectacle that comes from cut stones like the Koh-i-Noor or the Modern Hope. So King Louis ordered Sir Pitaow, the court jeweler, to cut the stone down to 67 and 1/8 carats.

• 7:50Speaker 00

  Now, for those of you paying attention, that is a bit over half of the original 115-carat stone, which feels like a crime to do, especially because the rest of the diamond offcuts are just like, lost to history. We have no idea what happened to them. Anyway, as part of this cutting process, Sir Pitaow had the chance to properly study and record the stone, making extensive notes in royal inventories on its composition, noting the colour as an intense steely blue, with the annotation underneath labelling it as "French Blue", hence why we have the colour French Blue today. After the cutting, the French blue was then set in gold and suspended in a neck ribbon, which the king wore on ceremonial occasions.

• 8:32Speaker 00

  So, did the mysterious curse of the French blue strike King Louis XIV? Well, just based on the numbers, five of his six children died in their youth, with his last surviving child, the Grandifun, also dying before the king himself. And while, yes, he did have a son and therefore the line had an heir, it was a perilous time for the Bobom throne, which wouldn't get any easier. So after King Louis XIV's death, the royal blue passed on to King Louis XV by royal succession. And while he was known as Louis the Beloved, he wasn't really beloved. In fact, he was actually kind of a dick, with his ineffective rule and excessive spending contributing to the decline of royal authority,

• 9:15Speaker 00

  leading to the outbreak of the French Revolution. As for the royal blue, well, Louis didn't like his great-grandpa's style, so he had the stone reset into an elaborate insignia of the Order of the Gold Fleece, a Catholic chivalric order, which is how it stayed for the next little while. So what tragedy befell King Louis XV from the royal blue? Well, of course, his famous mistress, Madame de Pompadour, died in 1764. The next year, his only son, Louis the Dauphin, also died prematurely, resulting in his grandson then becoming next in line, all of which preceded the king's own death of smallpox in 1774.

• 9:58Speaker 00

  Now, skeptics would say this is due to the lack of modern medicine and standard mortality rates of the time. The cursed believers would tell you to look no further than the royal blue, which sat inside the Palace of Versailles, leeching pain and suffering on all those who possessed it. Which brings us to none other than King Louis XVI and one Marie Antoinette. Oh, yes, divas, you best believe that our gal had the most stunning bright blue diamond in the world inside the royal treasury. And while there is no real evidence that she ever wore it, as it was only reserved for the king to wear on state occasions,

• 10:38Speaker 00

  if you ask cursed believers, they'll tell you the stone is absolutely part of the reason she lost her head.

• 10:48Speaker 00

  So what happened to it after the French monarchy went kaput? Well, after an attempt by Louis XVI and Marie to flee France during the turmoil of the revolution in seventeen ninety-one, the French royal treasury jewels, including the French blue, were turned over to the government and moved to the Gare du Malb, where they were put on view for the public once a week until here, the public had the chance to marvel at these incredible pieces they'd only heard of or dreamt of, and would likely still be able to do so today if not for the heist. I mean, come on, guys. You didn't think I would bring you a story involving a rare priceless jewel, doomed royal bloodlines, and a potential curse without a great heist?

• 11:34Speaker 00

  And in the case of the royal blue here, that came in September seventeen ninety-two. So to set the scene here, guys, I want to be really clear. The law at this point in time was more of a concept than an actual set of rules, and the French revolutionaries were basically behaving like this was the purge, which, to be honest, now that I actually say it out loud, the French Revolution kind of is the purge. The purge director should just make The French Revolution movie. So after the royal treasury was turned over to the government and placed in the Gare du Malb, a riotous mob engulfed Paris. This was the perfect cover for several thieves. It's like, it's like a thief's dream come true, right?

• 12:18Speaker 00

  Who were looking to make the most of this chaos and the lack of security that came with the royal treasury not being with the actual royals. Remember, at this stage, Louis and Marie are both still alive. They're under strict lock and key, which ironically is really the safest place for the jewels to be, but anyway, they're not, which allows these thieves to break into the Gare du Malb, stealing most of the French crown jewels over the course of about five nights. So if you're thinking, this is something like the current Louvre heist from last year, right? That was eight minutes. Guys, we are talking about days here, worth of slow smuggling

• 12:57Speaker 00

  out, no disguises, or stealth mode, or months of planning, or like fancy pants mechanical ladder things. It's literally just these guys going in over five fun-filled nights and, and robbing the state of France, basically. Now historians believe the fate of the French blue specifically was what most stolen gems encounter. They're smuggled out of the region to avoid detection and then recut to disguise its identity, avoid prosecution and make it easier to sell multiple stones through underground networks. However, National Geographic provide a more detailed speculations to what happened and even give us names here.

• 13:40Speaker 00

  So according to them, one of the thieves, Cadet Guillot Lordner, left Paris with the insignia of the Golden Fleece and removed the French blue from the setting along with the Cote de Bretagne, a red gemstone carved in the shape of a dragon. I want that one. I don't want the blue cursed diamond. I want the red dragon gemstone. So he allegedly goes to London and tried unsuccessfully to sell the Cote de Bretagne to exiled French monarchists and ended up in debtors' prison. This then rejoined the French Crown Jewels along with a good portion of the stolen loot, but the French blue?

• 14:18Speaker 00

  Simply vanished, gone in thin air.

• 14:23Speaker 00

  So what happened to it then? Well, some believe the French blue didn't go to London with Lordner at all, instead being stolen for a very specific purpose. You see, after Louis Ier's arrest in 1792, both Austria and Prussia were breathing down the neck of France, led by the Prussian Duke of Brunswick. Now, he was a strong military man with a very experienced army. However, in a stroke of almost uncanny destiny, the French somehow managed to not only repel the duke, but drive him back over the Rhine. This is incredible. Like, after all, think about it. How can a ragtag group of revolutionary men beat such an experienced and well-equipped Prussian general?

• 15:10Speaker 00

  Well, the theory here is that they didn't. Rather, it was a fixed match with revolutionary leaders orchestrating the jewel heist earlier that month to bribe the Duke of Brunswick to piss off. And his prize, you guessed it, the French blue. According to this theory, the Duke held on to the stone and after several years sent it to his daughter Princess Caroline in London in 1805. Regardless of what really happened here, though, we don't really know for certain. All that we know is that just days after the 20-year statute of limitations for crimes committed during the French Revolution had passed, magically a 45-carat bright blue diamond showed up in London.

• 15:54Speaker 00

  So that leaves us with the end of French royal ownership, but I must caveat here, guys, and tell you that the historical records show no curse mythology during French royal ownership, despite the fact this would be a great way to explain away the terrible decisions and mortality rates of the Bourbon dynasty. But in reality, the concept emerged years later, and we will get into that soon. But for now, let's get back to London in 1805, where we meet one Daniel Eliasen. A renowned London diamond broker, Eliasen was often trading and selling precious stones of both clear and dubious origins, including what is believed to be the French blue. Now, I do want to be clear here, we don't actually know that this is the same stone,

• 16:39Speaker 00

  but English jeweler and naturalist John Francillian, who made the first proper public sketches of the stone, firmly believed that this 45-carat blue stone was the French blue, based on Crown jeweler Sir Pataul's earlier accounts when it was originally cut down at the beginning. But like I said, we don't really know what happened with the stone throughout this period. All that we do know is that Eliasen was the man who facilitated the purchase to its most legendary owner, Henry Philip Hope, sometime between 1821 and 1830. So who is this mysterious Hope man? Well, Henry Philip Hope was born in 1774 to the wealthy Anglo-Dutch Hope banking family.

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  He rose in a time when Europe's aristocrats and elite merchants collected fine art, rare jewels and precious antiquities as symbols of status and power. And for the Hopes, no price was too steep to reflect their stature as the creme de la creme of both banking and polite society. As such, with each generation that passed, the Hope family's treasures multiplied, with each member having a particular penchant, and for Henry Philip, that was undoubtedly gems. Amassing a huge and highly rare collection of hundreds of diamonds, emeralds, rubies, sapphires and pearls throughout the late 18th and early 19th century,

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  Henry was looking for, both literally and metaphorically, his crown jewel. And when the tales of the stolen and the thought lost royal blue reached his ears, well, there was nothing that would stop him from obtaining it. As the centre stone in his collection, he would have businessmen, aristocratic ladies, industry titans and royals alike, all travelling to feast their eyes upon the famous royal blue, which was now given a brand new title, the Hope. Now, after Henry's death, the divvying up of his assets was quite the task, and the one thing everyone wanted to the surprise of no one listening and no one at the time was, of course, the Hope Diamond.

• 18:48Speaker 00

  However, after a tonne of litigation, it eventually passed on to his nephew, Henry Thomas Hope, before eventually finding its way to his daughter, Henrietta Adela Hope. Now, she married a total fucking noob called Lord Francis Pelham Clinton, of course, he's a noob with a name like that, who later became known as Lord Francis Hope, after adding the Hope surname to satisfy inheritance requirements connected to the family fortune, to which I say, more of this, please. Men need to be adding their wives' last name on to theirs in grand inheritance schemes. I am pro this.

• 19:32Speaker 00

  They were really actually a perfect match on paper. They had his title, her money and one big, grand influence. But despite all of this, the marriage was not a happy one. Troubled by debt from the dwindling Hope fortune and his gambling addiction alongside scandal from his affair with American-born stage performer May Yo, the couple's breakdown was large and very, very public. Eventually, Lord Francis left Henrietta and openly lived with May Yo, creating such lethal gossip that it leached from the shores of Britain to the plains of America. Henrietta, of course, strongly disapproved of both his spending and the affair, but eventually agreed to separation.

• 20:18Speaker 00

  However, this wasn't the worst of it. For Lord Francis, in dire need of money, like I said, noob, attempted to sell her family's crown jewel, the Hope Diamond, to pay off his debts. However, it wasn't that simple, guys. The stone and much of the remaining Hope fortune was Henrietta's, tied up, very deliberately like I said, in family inheritance rules. So he couldn't simply sell this jewel without her legal approval, which, of course, she denied, believing the diamond belonged to the family legacy and should be preserved for future generations. This whole thing was a spectacle, with newspapers closely following the legal fight,

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  making the Hope Diamond even more famous than it already was. Eventually, though, after years of legal and financial pressure, Lord Francis received permission to sell the diamond in 1901, marking the end of the Hope family's ownership and ultimately, the grand collapse of the once powerful fortune. And still, the scandal did not end there. Give Henrietta a break. Henrietta needs to go to like a small Alpine spa town with no postal service, okay?

• 21:35Speaker 00

  Because after Lord Francis sold the diamond, Mayo, the mistress, claimed the stone carried a curse and blamed it for ruining lives and marriages of all those who owned it. Yes, guys, I did tell you we would come back to the actual curse rumours, and they all started after the Hopes sold the diamond. So what do people actually have to say about the curse? Like, what's it about? The exact narrative, at this point in time at least, was twofold. On one hand, you had the story of it being stolen from the sacred Hindu temple, and the other blamed the wave of misfortune that bore down upon the heads of those who owned it on the blood of the French people spilled by its kings.

• 22:19Speaker 00

  Either way, as the years passed, these stories became more and more exaggerated by both journalists and jewel dealers, seeking to increase public fascination with the diamond. After all, it's hard to look at the Bon Kings and not think there is some other force at play here. Then while there is little evidence that the Hope owners endured personal hardships, aside from the dickhead that was Lord Francis, the family business certainly took a hit, losing almost all of its influence and fortune from the 1850s to 1901. So who then did Lord Francis the fuckwit sell the Hope diamond to? Well, the answer's actually a few different people.

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  At first, the gem travelled through the hands of several wealthy collectors and jewel dealers, but despite its beauty and royal history, it was still really only known within elite European circles. One man, however, saw a key opportunity, a chance, to ride the coattails of this incredible stone and its incredible legacy, and that man was Pierre Cartier. You see, what he saw before him was a branding opportunity for the ages. By using its royal history and the legend of its curse, Cartier would take a simple gemstone and turn it into a world-famous jewel associated with mystery and glamour and, of course, danger.

• 23:47Speaker 00

  Featuring the stone in the press with imagery and headlines describing tales of ruined fortunes, madness and mysterious deaths, the public drove even more fascination for the Hope, which brought private bidders in their droves. A phenomenon which I, I have to admit, Guy, I don't quite understand. Like, if someone's telling me, "If you own this thing, it's gonna ruin your fucking life, you should buy it," who is doing that? Like, genuinely, I wouldn't even wanna touch this thing. Like, I'm lacing my boots up and I'm running in the other direction. I will safely stand, like, a few metres back through bulletproof glass and, like, wave, but that is it. However, I suppose, you know, spin fruit and all that, right?

• 24:31Speaker 00

  You have the allure of danger and the ego that, you know, they can kind of beat this. And there was one woman in particular who Cartier knew had both of these things. Evelyn Walsh McLean. Born in 1886, Evelyn Walsh was the daughter of Thomas Walsh, a wealthy Irish-American mining entrepreneur with very, very deep pockets. She was raised in enormous luxury before then marrying another stupidly wealthy nepo baby called Edward Beale McLean, heir to the powerful Washington Post newspaper fortune. As such, Evelyn became the wealthiest woman in the US, and she loved three things above all else:

• 25:15Speaker 00

  jewellery, parties and attention. And for Mr. Cartier, that was the lethal mix which made her the perfect owner for the Hope Diamond. So, he basically began courting her, inviting her to Paris in 1910 for a private inspection of the diamond, but she didn't quite like the setting. Still, he persisted, having it reset and take to the US, where he left it with Evelyn for a whole weekend. Hoping that time with the illustrious jewel would persuade her into the sale, Cartier stayed nearby, waiting for her answer the entire weekend. She finally wrote to him on the Monday, "I'll take it."

• 25:54Speaker 00

  And the sale of the century was made in 1911 for a total of approximately $180,000, or 6.9 million US dollars today. Cartier then asked how she'd like it set, and while she first had it mounted on a headpiece, it soon became the pendant on the necklace surrounded by a circlet of large white diamonds as we know it today. From 1911 onwards, in this setting, the Hope became Evelyn's signature jewel. And she was frequently seen sporting it at glamorous parties, political gatherings, and elite social events all over the globe. One report even noted that she once let her dog wear it for parties around his collar,

• 26:36Speaker 00

  which, I don't want my dog anywhere near curses, like, I don't know what is wrong with these people, but, anyway. The newspapers, as you can imagine, absolutely loved it. After all, a cursed jewel hanging from the neck of a wealthy, famous lady is a recipe for some good, old-fashioned karma. And the press loved nothing more than tragedy, which unfortunately, is exactly what they got. Evelyn's personal life was truly ghastly. First, in 1919, her nine-year-old son Vincent died after being struck by a car, followed by her daughter, who tragically died from a drug overdose. Her husband, too, struggled with alcoholism and mental illness and eventually abandoned

• 27:20Speaker 00

  the family, before dying in a psychiatric hospital, along with the family fortune dwindling during the Great Depression. Evelyn then died in 1947 from complications related to pneumonia, with her estate not only diminished, but being heavily in debt. It seemed, very much, the Hope had taken its next victim, leaving once again the big question, who wants this thing? Well, as it turned out, no one from the McLean family. In fact, the estate was in so much debt that almost all of her valuable possessions, including jewellery, artwork, and personal items, had to be sold off to pay creditors.

• 28:01Speaker 00

  So, in 1949, famed New York jeweler Harry Winston, aka The King of Diamonds, purchased the Hope alongside the rest of Evelyn's jewellery collection. He was thrilled to have such a piece. However, unlike its earlier owners, who treated the diamond mainly as a private luxury, Winston understood its cultural and historical significance, and as such, showcased the famous gem in public exhibitions all across the US. With its royal history and importance in pop culture, plus its obvious beauty, the Hope attracted millions of people during these tours, which really helped transform it from a private jewel into a true cultural icon.

• 28:42Speaker 00

  Winston, however, had no interest in farming the ongoing curse narrative of the Hope, focusing instead on the diamond's beauty, rarity, and historical importance. More than this, though, Harry Winston believed beautiful and rare things shouldn't belong to one person, and despite being approached multiple times by private buyers, he refused to sell it, instead keeping the jewel for nearly a decade as part of his famous Court of Jewels travelling exhibition. Again, people loved it, viewership was incredibly high, and it seemed like the curse was perhaps wearing off, which is when he got the idea. How can something be cursed if it has no actual owner?

• 29:23Speaker 00

  Under this logic, Winston decided that the gemstone should not belong to any one person, and instead, belong to the people, put permanently on display for it to be marveled at as a symbol of the natural world rather than a symbol of one person or family's private wealth. So he donated it to this Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington DC on November 10th, 1958. Now, this is a big fucking deal here, guys. Not only are the Smithsonian, like, obviously getting this thing for free, but there is some serious transport and security required for this thing. I mean, the whole plot of Ocean's Twelve is how complex it is to transport precious goods, right?

• 30:04Speaker 00

  So, here's what I'm thinking, if it's me behind the security desk, right? Armored vehicle escorts, obviously. I then want at least ten bodyguards, one of whom is handcuffed to a, like, biometrically locked suitcase, holding the jewel. That ain't what happened, though. Instead, Harry Winston thought he'd just pop it in the post and slap a few fragile stamps on it, wrap it in bubble wrap, it'll be fine. Yeah, guys, this man shipped the Hope Diamond by a registered mail in a plain brown package, which cost $2.44 in postage.

• 30:43Speaker 00

  Now just last year, Fox News reported that an average of fifteen thousand pieces of mail are lost per month. So if those numbers are anything to go on, Harry took a big risk here. After all, the security operation for stars today to just wear jewels is insane. Lily Collins, for example, had an entire security team with her at the 2019 Met Gala, not for her, but for her Cartier Magnitude High Jewelry Necklace, which is worth a fraction of what the Hope is. But still, the trusty old plain brown paper package was chosen, making its way to the Smithsonian, but barely. Yes, for all of you cursed believers out there, it seemed the Hope struck again, with the delivery

• 31:27Speaker 00

  driver James Todd having a truck accident shortly after dropping it off. To add further fuel to the fire here, he suffered a head injury in a separate car crash weeks later, and his house burnt down. Again, seems just like a little too coincidental even for me. But alas, the Hope finally arrived at the museum and was quick sticks locked up behind bulletproof glass forever. A job I certainly wouldn't want to have undertaken. And to be honest, a lot of Americans felt the same, with calls for the museum to lock the jewel away forever. It was put on display though, and is free to view in case any of you guys are brave enough to get up close. Now, since it was first placed in the Smithsonian's

• 32:11Speaker 00

  care, it has largely stayed there, but has had a few outings, including Paris in 1962, which was partly organised by Jackie Kennedy, and to South Africa in 1965. It was also restored and presented a few times by Harry Winston between 1984 and 2009, and in 2010, it had a year-long trip to London's Natural History Museum. In total today, more than a hundred million people have been to see the Hope Diamond at the Smithsonian, with it remaining the most popular exhibition in the museum's long history.

• 32:46Speaker 00

  So there we have the origins and the owners, but we still have our big question unanswered. Is this thing cursed? Well, if you ask me, regardless of whether it was ripped out of a Hindu statue or just pulled out of a mine in India, it doesn't really matter, guys. The Juju is bad. That Golconda Mine, where the hope came from, operated between the 16th and 19th centuries, employing between 30 to 60,000 workers who often died when the mines collapsed during rainfall. Those that survived then had to rely on heavy manual labour as pulleys or other devices weren't in action, and they were often "paid", like air commas here, guys, "paid in food".

• 33:31Speaker 00

  Meanwhile, the stones being hauled out of these regions by these people are sold for hundreds of millions of dollars and often were actually just taken as the spoils of conquest and colonialism. This same mine was so prolific for the quality of its stones that in the 17th century, that whole area became known as the diamond capital of the world, attracting merchants, prospectors, jewellers and fortune seekers, all of whom relied on and exploited local labour, with several cases of foreign disease breaking out amongst local groups from these travellers. So again, whether it was pulled out of a statue or a mine, it's exploitative. And let me tell you, karma is a fate I don't want to tango with.

• 34:18Speaker 00

  But what do the experts think, right? Well, according to Dr Richard Kern, an author, social anthropologist and Smithsonian staff member, this curse, load of filly. He says, quote, "This legend is only one small piece of a long and lustrous history that moves between ancient religion and modern magic." He also notes its strong storytelling comes down to its mix of, quote, "royal power, class rivalry, revenge and greed", a sentiment shared by author Richard Sheeposh, who says, quote, "Experts view these stories as mere folklore intended to enhance its allure", and you can see how this is their view after all. These are men of science. But I'm keen to hear all of your thoughts here. What do we think? Is this cursed?

• 35:02Speaker 00

  Is it coincidence? Is it, you know, a bit of both? Is there a blurred line here? Let me know, DMs, comments, email, whatever you want. Now, before we wrap up... We of course have to address the other elephant in the room. This one is very big, it is very bright, it is very blue. Some of you, very rightfully, might be wondering if this diamond is from India, then why the hell does America get to have it forever? And it's a great question, one of which, by the way, opens a truckload of worms. We're not going to do that, we're just gonna open it, pull the one worm out. We could do a different episode on this if we want to, but we are going to wade through this together. Now, the Hope has had a number of calls for restitution over the years,

• 35:47Speaker 00

  with supporters arguing that the diamond left India during a period where European merchants and colonial powers benefited heavily from unequal political and economic relationships, as we mentioned earlier. This is a similar stance taken by the majority of regions where these stones were pulled from, including but not limited to Africa, India and Colombia. And the most famous case of this is the Koh-i-Noor. Weighing in at a ginormous 105.6 carats, the Koh-i-Noor had been passed through the treasuries of legendary Mughal emperors, Afghan amirs and Sikh Maharajas for centuries,

• 36:28Speaker 00

  before winding up in the gritty-grubby hands of the British East India Company in 1849, after the British annexation of the Punjab in India. Now, according to them, the Koh-i-Noor, which comes from the Kolor mine, the same one as the Hope here, was legally, legally, obtained under the surrender of the Punjab to the British, after which it was then presented to Queen Victoria. However, this is not the full story. Guys, this is a load of fui, as the young Maharaja Dulip Singh, who was about 10 years old at the time, was absolutely coerced into handing this over. It wasn't a gift or a condition, it was fucking extortion. One which remains a painful example of Britain's colonial history

• 37:13Speaker 00

  and a potent symbol of loss and contested heritage for Punjabs and others in South Asia.

• 37:20Speaker 00

  Today, can you guess where it lives? Yep, London, just down the road actually from the British Museum, which contains more stolen artefacts than I've had hot dinners, including the Rosetta Stone and the Parthenon sculptures, to name a few. As such, calls for restitution of the Koh-i-noor and the rest of the looted artefacts have grown louder in the years that have passed, with Indian representatives arguing for decades that the Koh-i-noor should be given back to them.

• 37:48Speaker 00

  Rather disappointingly, a 2016 statement from the Indian government showed a slowing down in this resolve when they told a court that New Delhi should give up claim over the huge diamond as it has been in Britain for more than a century. This, of course, was to the dismay of many Indians and people who care about restitution, who want the Koh-i-noor back where it belongs, which Sabi Gosre, an academic, believes is an obvious step, saying, quote, "The historical evidence has clearly demonstrated that the Koh-i-noor diamond does not legally belong in the museums of London, nor does it justify being adorned by any British royalty." Today, calls for restitution continue to grow, especially in the last few years, where Queen Camilla elected to wear a different piece of headgear

• 38:32Speaker 00

  for the coronation to avoid further scandal. Even New York Mayor Zora Mumdani joined the conversation just a few months ago, saying this.

• 38:40Speaker 01

  If I was to speak to the king separately from that, I would probably encourage him to return the Koh-i-noor diamond.

• 38:47Speaker 00

  But there is another side of the restitution coin, one which deals less with the origin of the piece and more with ownership. And under this logic, France has also claimed the restitution of the Hope Diamond. After all, guys, let us not forget it was purchased, whether legally or not, by the French kings and then stolen in the heist of 1792. I mean, the thing was literally called "The French Blue" for over a hundred years as a major part of their crown jewels.

• 39:18Speaker 00

  Now this is a sticky point of view to take and try and debate. You know, as we said, so many of the jewels during this period were hauled out of India and other regions for unfair prices under unfair conditions, which is obviously wrong. But on paper, the ownership does land with France. It's just so murky here, guys. Like, if we apply the prior logic of returning it to the country of origin, we'd have no crown jewels anywhere, which again raises an even bigger question of, you know, whether we need crown jewels and who has a right to wear crown jewels. And that is a question that the top 1% of the world do not want to answer for obvious reasons. Now, I do think this is important to acknowledge though, because even though the Hope's history

• 40:03Speaker 00

  is nowhere near as tumultuous as the Koh-i-noor's, and if we're really being honest here, I think the karmic justice of the stone seems to take care of itself here. It is still a grey area that we really have to deal with. And I want to hear your thoughts on it, you know, should this go back to India? Should France have it? Or is it rightful place locked up in the Smithsonian where people can see it? Let me know. Which brings us to the end of another episode of Hot History. Thank you so much for following along with me on this episode. My apologies for the nasally tune, which just adds that extra bit of dimension to my Australian accent, I am sure. Make sure to tune in next week because, speaking of Aussies, we're talking about Aussie history.

• 40:47Speaker 00

  You guys have been in my DMs and comments asking for some tales from the sunny shores of Oz, and I am so happy to deliver you one of my favourites. She is the scandalous and sensational Sydney cider who buried four husbands, drove her cheater around in a Bentley, became a war hero and amassed a series of fortunes beaten in number only by her list of lovers. This is the story of the Aussie wine heiress Enid Linderman, and I cannot wait to share her with you. As always, guys, if you are looking for some more hot history, before then, you can follow us on Instagram at Hot History Club and on TikTok at Hot dot history. It has been such a pleasure, as always, getting down and dirty in time with you,

• 41:31Speaker 00

  and I will speak to you all shortly. Thanks, guys. Love you. Bye.