'Curse' debunked by historian

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Did the Hope Diamond, feared by many as a cursed stone, save the French Revolution?
Though Smithsonian scholar Richard Kurin seeks to debunk the legend of the curse in his fascinating book "Hope Diamond," he also raises the possibility that the startling blue gem was good luck for the French and bad for their enemies.
A combined Austrian and Prussian army led by the Duke of Brunswick was poised to invade France, end the revolution and restore the monarchy. But Brunswick declined to battle the French, retreating instead and raising charges of treachery.
Kurin reports that Brunswick was later quoted as saying no one would ever know the reason for the retreat -- but rumors of bribery abounded.
In the revolutionary chaos of Paris the French crown jewels, including a magnificent gem called the French Blue, had been stolen.
Brunswick's daughter Caroline later married the future King George IV of England and a picture of her at the time shows her wearing an oval blue diamond similar to the Hope -- rumored to be a recut gem from the triangular French Blue.
Indeed, just last year scientists determined that the Hope was cut from the larger French Blue, which also produced two smaller diamonds in the recutting.
Namesake owner
The diamond later passed into the hands of wealthy English merchant Henry Philip Hope, from whom it takes its current name.
Originally, it was purchased in India, Kurin notes -- it was not stolen from the eye of an idol -- and became part of the French crown jewels before the Revolution.
After the Hope family, it had a series of owners including jeweler Pierre Cartier. He appears to have created much of the bad-luck legend to add interest to the brilliant jewel, which he was then able to sell to Edward and Evalyn Walsh McLean of Washington.
In time, the stone came into the possession of another famous jeweler, Harry Winston, who donated it to the Smithsonian Institution where, curators say, it has been nothing but good luck, attracting throngs of visitors and inspiring other gifts to the national museum.
The average life spans of owners of the gem is 68 years -- 72 years if you include curators and others who have had custody of it, Kurin reports.
"If by the curse we mean a supernatural causal agent or factor that somehow brings misfortune to the possessors of the stone, then there is no curse," Kurin concludes.
But it is a grand story, he adds: "It is the genuine folklore of a modern society, a cultural creation for our times. Folklore is never a lie."
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