The Hope Diamond Gets A New Look

The Hope Diamond is the world’s most famous jewel. A deep shade of blue and weighing 45.5 carats, it costs $250 million.

For it’s 50th anniversary it is being displayed at the Smithsonian Institute with a whole new look.

The new setting done by Harry Winston is called Embracing Hope and consists of two platinum bands intertwined with each other and studded with 300 baguette stones.

Winston acquired the diamond in 1949 and it is said to be cursed. The mailman who delivered the stone to the museum got hit by a truck, lost his wife and watched his house burn. It also belonged to Marie Antoinette, and husband King Louis XVI, before they were beheaded. It’s legend grew with French jeweler Pierre Cartier created tales surrounding it in order to raise the price to sell it to American heiress, Evalyn Walsh McLean. She also suffered bad luck when her eldest son was killed in a car accident, her husband went bankrupt and wound up in an alcoholics institution, and her daughter died of a laudanum overdose at 21.