THE HOPE DIAMOND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20058, 22 September 1928, Page 22

THE HOPE DIAMOND.

Mr 3 Edward Beale McLean, wife of the American millionaire newspaper proprietor, caused a sensation by appearing in a fashionable restaurant in Paris wearing the famous Hope blue diamond, which is noted for having brought bad luck to all the persons who have owned it. The diamond also brought ill-fortune to the McLean's, for one of their sons was killed in a motoring accident in Washington a few weeks after Mr. McLean bad purchased it in London in 1911 for £60,000. They have, however, always been sceptical of the evil omen attached to the stone. Mrs. McLean also wore the Hope diamond at a number of functions on board the liner Olympic recently, where it was also much remarked because of its beauty. She was the Paris hostess of Miss Amelia Earhart. Murder, suicido, madness and other misfortunes are stated to have pursued the owners of the famous blue diamond from the time when Tavcrnier, the famous Belgian traveller, sold it to Louis XIV. more than 230 years ago. Its owners have included Queen Marie Antoinette, who died on the scaffold; Francois Bcaulieu, who starved to death; Prince Kanitovski, who was assassinated by Nihilists; a Greek jeweller, who was killed with his family in an accident: Sultan Abdul Ilamid, who was deposed by the Young Turks; and Habib, a Persian merchant, who was drowned in a liner disaster.