text: Legend has it that the infamous Hope diamond brings misfortune to whoever owns it. Well, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History added the magnificent sky-blue gemstone to its collection 53 years ago today (Nov.10), and the institution has fared just fine so far. 
   
   As the museum states on its website, it "appears to have maintained the Hope curse-free." 
   
   So what's the evidence that the Hope diamond is cursed? 
   
   There are plenty of stories of the stone's owners meeting horrible fates, but scholars tend to believe that many of these tales were cooked up or embellished on, at one time or another, by the gem's various owners, in hopes that an incredible history would fetch the diamond a better price in a sale. The diamond has changed hands many times, and for a few periods in its life, the name of the owner is lost to history. 
   
   Here, we'll focus on the people who owned the rock for the most significant chunks of time, and whose fates historians can confirm. 
   
   The most commonly accepted origin of the curse dates back to 1653, when a French merchant named Jean Baptiste Tavernier obtained the original 115-carat blue diamond in India. The story goes that Tavernier plucked the gem from one of the eyes of a Hindu idol and, for this sacrilege, was later mauled to death by dogs. In fact, the story is a myth: Tavernier returned to France and sold the gem to King Louis XIV for a pretty penny, after which he retired to Russia and died peacefully there. Scholars even question how Tavernier came upon the gem, as a second diamond never turned up, and no one else ever found the statue in question. 
   
   Louis, too, escaped misfortune despite his ownership of the "French Blue," as the Hope was then called. However, one of Louis' descendants who inherited the stone was not as lucky. King Louis XVI and his queen, Marie Antoinette, lost their heads to the guillotine during the French Revolution, and their crown jewels – including the diamond – were ransacked by thieves. [How Are Fake Diamonds Made?] 
   
   A cut-down piece of the French Blue resurfaced in London two decades later, and the financier Henry Philip Hope bought it in 1839 (the diamond is now known by the family's name). The stone's "curse" skipped over Henry but came down with a vengeance on a descendant, Lord Francis Hope. After Lord Francis received his inheritance at the age of 21, he married an American showgirl named Mary Yohe and lived so far beyond his means that he was eventually forced to sell the magnificent diamond and declare bankruptcy. The showgirl ran off with one of his rivals and eventually died in poverty. 
   
   The Hope diamond exchanged hands a few times before American jeweler Pierre Cartier obtained it, and again the "curse" skipped him. In fact, historians suspect Cartier embellished some of the curse rumors to entice the diamond's next buyer, the glamorous Washington socialite Evalyn Walsh McLean, who became the modern poster child for the stone's curse. 
   
   McLean and her husband obtained it in 1912 and proceeded to lead a notably tragic life. Her young son was killed in a car accident, and her daughter committed suicide. Her husband left her for another woman and eventually ended up in an insane asylum. In the words of the Smithsonian, "More than anyone, Evalyn Walsh McLean became the poster child for the Hope diamond's legendary curse." 
   
   The jeweler Henry Winston bought the diamond from McLean's estate and avoided its curse, eventually selling it to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in 1958. The museum, too, did well — attendance grew and the museum is now home to one of the world's finest gem collections — but James Todd, the postman who delivered it, did indeed meet with misfortune: He was hit by a truck (not fatally), his wife and dog died not long after, and his home caught fire. 
   
   Perhaps the museum is lucky to be one of the owners spared the wrath of the Hope diamond. Or perhaps there is no ruinous curse at all. That's what its market value would imply, anyway: Today the sky-blue gem is worth a quarter of a billion dollars. 
   
   This article was provided by Life's Little Mysteries, a sister site to LiveScience. Follow us on Twitter @llmysteries, then join us on Facebook. ||||| Every day, thousands of visitors to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum crowd around a glass case on the second floor to gaze at the Hope Diamond, one of the world's most famous jewels. It's been the subject of dozens of books, games, documentaries and scientific inquiries, partly due to persisting legends that it's cursed. Despite all this attention, though, it seems that the inch-wide, 45.52-carat diamond still conceals secrets waiting to be uncovered. 
   
   One of these secrets was recently discovered by François Farges, a professor of mineralogy at the National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, and Jeffrey Post, the Smithsonian museum's curator of minerals. Using computer modeling, a recently-rediscovered 17th century lead replica and scientific analysis, they've determined that back when the Hope was known as the "French Blue" and part of the personal collection of King Louis XIV of France, during the late 17th century, it was likely placed on a gold background and specially cut to produce an effect reminiscent of a sun at its center. Only after it was stolen in 1792, during the French Revolution—and before it resurfaced in Britain in 1812—was it recut to the familiar, smaller shape we know today. 
   
   Their new discovery, described in an article published in the month's Rocks and Minerals magazine, stems from Farges' 2009 discovery of a lead replica of the French Blue in the National d'Histoire Naturelle mineral collections, which provided the exact dimensions of King Louis XIV's French Blue for the first time. Both Post and Farges are mineral scientists, and much of their other work on the Hope is concerned with the science behind its distinctive hue, but they've also used the tools of science to investigate the gem's complex provenance. 
   
   And the history of the diamond is a complex one: It was bought somewhere in India in a rougher, less finely-cut shape by Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, a French merchant, and brought to France in 1668. "Unfortunately, Tavernier wrote some really wonderful journals about the trip, but nowhere in them did he say anything about where he actually bought the diamond," Post says. It's believed that the stone was plucked from the Kollur Mine, in what's now the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, but no one knows for sure. 
   
   From there, it became part of the French crown jewels, and was cut by Jean Pittan, one of King Louis XIV's court jewelers, sometime between 1669 and 1672, eventually becoming known as the French Blue. That the Hope and the French Blue were the same stone was suggested by diamond experts as far back as 1858, but only proved definitively in 2009, when Farges unearthed the lead replica at the Paris museum. At the time, jewelers made metal replicas for extremely precious stones and used them as placeholders when designing settings. 
   
   "They didn't even know they had it. It was in their collection, but filed under lead specimens," Post says. Drawings and descriptions of the French Blue had previously suggested it could have been recut to produce the Hope, but the exact physical dimensions provided by the lead replica allowed Farges to collect digital 3D measurements that would prove it. When they compared these measurements to those of the Hope, "it fit into the French Blue perfectly—you could see exactly how the French Blue was cut to form the Hope," says Post. 
   
   The replica, though, also raised a question: Why was the French Blue cut into such an uncommon shape? 
   
   Nowadays, when jewelers cut diamonds, they use sharp angles on the back of the stone—always higher than 23 degrees, the critical angle of diamond, so that light that enters the gem reflects inside it several times. The ubiquitous brilliant cut, for instance, is designed to maximize the number of reflections that light entering the diamond encounters, thus maximizing the distance that light travels within the diamond. This heightens the brilliance for the viewer. 
   
   But the back of the French Blue had low angles and even an entirely flat culet on its back, allowing some light to travel through and straight out the back of the stone. Compared to the rest of the stone, the material right in front of the culet at the gem's center would have appeared relatively clear and colorless, almost like looking through a glass window. 
   
   Farges and Post's intriguing explanation: that the jeweler intended for the center of the stone to serve as a window. Along with the flat culet, the French Blue had a series of star-shaped facets that were also below the critical angle, which would have caused the region in front of them to also appear relatively clear. 
   
   A 1691 inventory of the French Crown Jewels notes that the gem was "set into gold and mounted on a stick." If placed in front of a gold sheet, they realized, these unique cuts would have caused a dazzling golden sun to appear at the center of the deep blue stone. 
   
   Farges and Post have used computer modeling to produce an image that simulates exactly how this would have appeared, shown above. "King Louis XIV was the 'Sun King,' and so this would have been an emblem representing his power," Post says. "His colors were blue and gold, and so to have a blue diamond with a gold sun in the center—that'd be something that no one else has, something that would almost seem divine." 
   
   The researchers are planning on comissioning a cubic zirconia replica, cut and colored to match the French Blue, which would demonstrate this effect and could someday be put on display with the Hope to illustrate the stone's transformation and history. They're also scrutinizing archives of Louis XIV's jewelers from that era to look for conclusive evidence that this design was intentional. 
   
   One thing they know for sure is that the sun effect was eradicated around 1749, when the Sun King's great-grandson, King Louis XV, ordered the stone to be lifted from its mounting and incorporated into an elaborate emblem. During the French Revolution, it was stolen along with the rest of the Crown Jewels, and although most of the other gems were recovered by French officials, the famous French Blue disappeared. The slightly smaller Hope Diamond—which we now know was cut from the French Blue—was first documented as being in London in 1812, and became well known when it showed up in the collection catalogue of banker Henry Philip Hope in 1839. 
   
   More than a half century after it was donated to the Smithsonian in 1958, the Hope is still one of the Natural History Museum's most-visited and well-known artifacts. "It speaks to the remarkable power of a gemstone. It has generated so much research, interest and curiosity, and it's focused people on a history that might otherwise go untold," Post says. "All due to a gem one inch in diameter." 
   
   Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Louis XV was the son of Louis XIV. He was the great-grandson of XIV. Many thanks to reader Joshua Stopple for catching the error. ||||| Picture this: You’re on a train that’s traveling fast through the mountains. A man is tied to a chair in front of you. A bear growls from behind a closet door. And everywhere around you are stolen priceless gems, statues and paintings. 
   
   Welcome to “Hidden Expedition: Smithsonian Hope Diamond,” the first video game that the Smithsonian Institution has helped create. From a train in India to the hills of Switzerland to the Smithsonian Castle, the game released in December takes you on an adventure around the world. 
   
   You are the explorer 
   
   Your task is to find pieces of the Hope Diamond before a group of thieves gets to them. As the game unfolds, you realize that you are an explorer working for the Smithsonian, challenged with solving riddles and puzzles in order to get to the next stage of the game. You can’t actually lose, but the faster you piece together what you need to do, the better your score. 
   
   Along the way you learn about the real Hope Diamond, a hugely popular attraction at the National Museum of Natural History. 
   
   “It never has failed to fascinate me, the draw the diamond has on people . . . no matter what we do with it,” said Jeffrey Post, who is a curator, or overseer, of gems and minerals at the Smithsonian. “It’s valuable, rare and famous. It’s like wanting to see a movie star. The Hope Diamond is a bit of a celebrity.” 
   
   Post worked closely with Big Fish Games to make sure the information and images were correct. The game is littered with trivia, such as whose statue is in front of the Smithsonian Castle (Joseph Henry, the first secretary of the Smithsonian). 
   
   Hope Diamond legend 
   
   It makes sense that the Hope Diamond would play a central role in a video game. The story of the real diamond is full of mystery. 
   
   A Frenchman named Jean Baptiste Tavernier was the first known owner of the diamond, but no one is sure how he got it. Legend says that in the 17th century he stole a large stone from a statue of a god in India. Because of that, the diamond is supposedly cursed. 
   
   Many people around the globe, including kings, have owned the blue stone, and some have had bad luck. The Hope family, for which the diamond is named, owned it in the 1800s but went into debt and was forced to sell it. A rich Washington woman named Evalyn Walsh McLean bought the jewel in 1911. Her son and daughter died young. Was that because of the diamond’s curse? 
   
   Post said it’s possible there are shards of the Hope Diamond, just like those mentioned in the game. (The diamond was recut over the years.) He is working with a French museum to figure out more about where the diamond came from. 
   
   Post’s favorite story about the diamond is true. When you shine an ultraviolet light on the diamond in a dark room, it glows bright red. That’s because of a chemical called boron in the diamond that makes it blue in the light but a fiery red in the dark. 
   
   “It’s something you don’t expect to see,” Post said. “It’s also one of those secrets of the Hope Diamond. . . . So you can see there’s a lot of different hooks in the Hope Diamond that would create a story.” 
   
   Try the game 
   
   What: “Hidden Expedition: Smithsonian Hope Diamond” 
   
   Platforms: Mac and PC 
   
   How old: Best for age 8 and older. 
   
   How much: $19.99. 
   
   Where to buy: www.bigfishgames.com. Always ask a parent before going online.
target: – It's legendary, supposedly cursed, admired daily by thousands, and the star of a video game—and yet we don't know all there is to know about the Hope Diamond, or so a recent discovery indicates. The 45.52-carat diamond has given up one of its secrets to French mineral scientist François Farges and Jeffrey Post, the Smithsonian's curator of minerals. Their detective work involved computer modeling and a 17th-century lead replica that Farges found in 2009 among the National d'Histoire Naturelle's collection, and led them to an intriguing conclusion: When King Louis XIV possessed the diamond, it was mounted on a gold background and cut in a way that could cause a sun to appear at the blue stone's center—all too appropriate for the Sun King, whose colors were blue and gold, reports Smithsonian Magazine. Louis XIV bought the originally 112 3/16-carat, crudely cut diamond in 1668 from a French merchant who obtained the jewel somewhere in India. Five years later it was recut to its 67 1/8-carat size, according to the Smithsonian Encyclopedia, at which time it became known as the French Blue. In the years between its theft (in 1792, during the French Revolution) and reappearance (in 1812, in Britain), it was again cut to its current size, obliterating those former dimensions—until Farges uncovered the replica, which would have been used by jewelers in need of a stand-in for the actual diamond while creating settings. But the replica made clear that the French Blue was cut in an unusual way, eschewing the sharp angles that maximize the reflection of light. In exploring the reasoning behind the cut, Farges and Post arrived at their conclusion. Interestingly, it was only with the discovery of the replica that it was conclusively proven that the French Blue and the Hope Diamond were the same stone. (Click for another fascinating story about diamonds.)