The Hope Diamond, also known as "Le bleu de France"("The Blue of France") or "Le Bijou du Roi" ("the Jewel of the King"), is a large, 45.52-carat (9.10 g), deep-blue diamond, now housed in the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in Washington, D.C. It is blue to the naked eye because of trace amounts of boron within its crystal structure, and exhibits red phosphorescence after exposure to ultraviolet light. It is classified as a Type IIb diamond, and is notorious for supposedly being cursed, although the current owner considers it a valuable asset with no reported problems associated with it. It has a long recorded history with few gaps in which it changed hands numerous times on its way from India to France to Britain and to the United States. It has been described as the "most famous diamond in the world".
Read more about Hope Diamond: Physical Properties, Replicas
Famous quotes containing the words hope and/or diamond:
“Our roots are in the dark; the earth is our country. Why did we look up for blessing—instead of around, and down? What hope we have lies there. Not in the sky full of orbiting spy-eyes and weaponry, but in the earth we have looked down upon. Not from above, but from below. Not in the light that blinds, but in the dark that nourishes, where human beings grow human souls.”
—Ursula K. Le Guin (b. 1929)
“A poet who makes use of a worse word instead of a better, because the former fits the rhyme or the measure, though it weakens the sense, is like a jeweller, who cuts a diamond into a brilliant, and diminishes the weight to make it shine more.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)