Smithsonian Closed, Hope Diamond Awaits Its Synthetic Twin

Years ago, some diamonds were bought by socialites and movie stars who relished showing them off to friends and the press. The American heiress Evalyn Walsh McLean, the Hope’s last private owner, often wore it in public — or occasionally put it around the neck of her dog or wore it when she gardened. Richard Burton made headlines in 1969 when he bought a 68-carat diamond for Elizabeth Taylor, naming it the Taylor-Burton diamond. Just after the actor bought it, Cartier, the seller, put it on display in New York where 6,000 people a day lined up to gape.

But in recent years “movie stars generally don’t buy them, they borrow them,” said Henry Barguirdjian, a former chief executive of Graff USA and managing partner of Arcot, a gem investment firm, in an interview shortly before he died in October. And he added, “In America there are people who love to buy precious stones, but they are usually business people and completely anonymous. In Asia they buy the way Americans used to buy: for status symbols.”

In 2015, Joseph Lau, a businessman in Hong Kong, set a record of $48.4 million buying a 12.03-carat diamond at Sotheby’s called “Blue Moon of Josephine” for his 7-year-old daughter just after buying a 16.08-carat pink diamond, “Sweet Josephine,” for $28.5 million from Christie’s.

The Hope, often cited as a metaphor for ne plus ultra, is unusual in that it has been on view for over 60 years. (To be sure, both the French and British crown jewels, on public display, include extraordinary diamonds: among them those cut from the 3,106-carat Cullinan, found in South Africa in 1905, and the 105.6 carat Koh-i-Noor, found in India.)

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/28/style/hope-diamond-story-smithsonian-copy.html