France claims Hope Diamond is King Louis XIV’s long lost gem
18th November 2008
France has claimed ownership of the Hope Diamond, a star exhibit in Washington’s Smithsonian Institution, using new research to suggest it is actually a legendary gem once owned by King Louis XIV that was looted in the French Revolution.
Good luck with that.
November 19th, 2008 at 09:15
Well, it’s supposed to have a curse on it, and it became the property of America right before the 60s.
QED.
I say we give it to them.
November 19th, 2008 at 09:26
“… and I am Marie of Romania …”
November 19th, 2008 at 14:18
Bother. I wrote a comprehensive comment and it’s lost in the ether, probably because I included links. The gist of it is, the gem curator of the Smithsonian acknowledged the Hope is the re-cut remnant of the French Blue; see an article published 02/09/05 in Wired. Unfortunately this article doesn’t include the very cool image of a line drawing of the French Blue with the Hope nestled inside with their tables aligned. Crystalline structure of diamonds, even those of great clarity, are quite complex and the likelihood of such a good alignment of table cleft is infinitesimally small.
The Smithsonian, like all world-class museums, has protocols for repatriation of items from their collection. It will be interesting to see whether they agree to repatriate the blue diamond of their crown, the most popular item in their collections. It will certainly change the Hope.
November 19th, 2008 at 16:34
The problem I have with it is the blyth assumption that the French state is the appropriate heir. If they wanted to return it to the heir of line of the last possessor, Louis XVI, I’d be more inclined in their favor. But of course this is just a blatant government property grab under color of law.
November 19th, 2008 at 17:55
Well, the Sancy Diamond was stolen at the same time and eventually sold to a Russian aristocrat. The stone rattled around the Raj for a while and eventually was purchased by William Waldorf Astor in 1906. The 4th Viscount Astor went on to sell it to the Louvre in 1978. That should establish the precedent that famous and fabulously-valuable diamonds stolen from the French crown jewels should be repatriated by purchase. Supposedly, Viscount Astor sold the Sancy for one million dollars, which seems kinda cheap when you consider the Taylor-Burton Diamond changed hands for three mill the following year. That should establish the precedent that the selling price should not equal its worth on the open market. One-third the worth of the Hope Diamond is estimated to be at least $300 million.
November 19th, 2008 at 18:02
Louis-Phillippe, the last Bourbon king of the French, was a popular monarch who signed an agreement in order to be named king. It seems that modern popular monarchs are not crowned. In that case, who owns the regalia? I think the government. I wonder about the terms Louis-Phillippe and the French government agreed upon.
November 19th, 2008 at 18:46
The heir general would be the head of the Bourbon-Parma line, descended from the sister of the Duke of Bordeaux.