Mystery of the Hope Diamond (2010) - full transcript

It's night at the museum.

Inside the Smithsonian
institution in Washington,

The last visitor has left.

The dinosaurs are alone.

The north Atlantic right whale
has only guards for company.

But on this night,
something strange is happening.

The most famous and mysterious
diamond in the world

is being taken from
its bomb-proof cabinet.

The Hope Diamond,
at 45.5 carats,

the biggest deep blue diamond
ever discovered,

is about to go under the drill
to reveal its inner secrets.



Hundreds of millions of atoms
will be blasted out of it

and open up a window

into a world
over a billion years old.

The Hope Diamond

is one of the world's
most unique creations.

It's a little bit
like a meteorite

that's fallen to the earth
from outer space.

The Hope Diamond
does not just contain

a scientific mystery.

It has also spawned
a legendary curse.

It's got this
fabulously complicated

and dramatic history.

There are so many twists
and turns and dramatic events

and horrible deaths
along the way.



Behind the Hope Diamond

lies the greatest jewel robbery
in history,

a glittering American heiress
struck by tragedy

and an executed king and queen.

The idea that here's
this diamond

that has touched the neck
of Marie Antoinette,

that was stolen
from an idol in India

and has this magical power.

For half a century

the Hope Diamond has been
america's crown jewel.

Now, to Mark the anniversary,

Master Craftsmen
at Harry Winston

are creating a new setting
selected by the American people.

When you look at the Hope,
you are not the same.

This transforms your vision
into the world of gems.

This is the astonishing story

of the Hope Diamond.

The national museum
of natural history

in Washington, D.C.

Here, protected by a thick layer
of bullet and bomb-proof glass,

lies the most visited exhibit
on the planet.

It attracts about as many
visitors as the Mona Lisa.

What makes the Hope Diamond
so special and alluring

is its unique combination

of size, near perfect clarity
and deep blue color.

It towers over
the single carat diamond

typical of an engagement ring,

but the Hope also contains
one mysterious property

that is the subject

of a long running
scientific puzzle.

One night in the late 1960s,

scientists in South Africa

placed the Hope Diamond
under ultraviolet light.

Nothing happened...

Until the light
was switched off.

Incredibly, the diamond emitted
an almost supernatural red glow.

It continued to glow
for up to a minute,

an effect never seen before.

Dr. Jeffrey post, curator
of the national gem collection,

has studied the Hope
for two decades.

This glow was something
that clued US in to the idea

that there had to be something
about this diamond

that made it different
than most other diamonds.

We've never seen this intensity
in any other diamond.

But what was that something

creating this mysterious
red glow?

Some believed the answer
could be found in history

or even in legend.

But for the Smithsonian's
experts,

it was a question
that only science could solve.

The first stage
of their investigation

was to go back in time,

to planet earth
billions of years ago.

What eventually became
the Hope Diamond

was first created

around 100 miles below
the surface of the earth

in a layer called
the upper mantle.

Like every other diamond,

it began life as a cluster
of carbon atoms.

Under extreme pressure and heat,

the atoms formed into the rigid
crystal structure of diamond.

But to get to the surface,

a diamond has to survive
a perilous journey.

The diamond is a passenger.

We've got molten magma
that's now pushing, erupting

towards the surface
of the earth.

It carries the diamond with it.

Now this eruption is so violent,

it gets to the surface
of the earth

in a matter of a few hours.

These diamonds are traveling
at 30, 40 miles per hour.

The diamond could have been
destroyed during this.

If the diamond traveled
too slowly to the surface,

it would change from diamond
to graphite.

Again, the diamond
would be destroyed.

You know, maybe
one in a million,

one in a billion diamonds
that are down there

actually make it to the surface.

After the diamond crystal

survived its journey
to the surface,

the molten rock cooled
and solidified,

entombing the diamond.

Over millions of years,
the molten volcanic rock eroded,

releasing the diamond
to be washed along rivers

in the sub-continent of India,

finally coming to rest
in gravel deposits.

And that was where,
in the mid 17th century,

human eyes first gazed upon
the largest deep blue diamond

the world has ever seen.

The Hope Diamond was about to
embark on a 350-year journey.

It would pose a set of riddles

encompassing science, history
and a legendary curse.

But it wasn't until
the early 20th century

that the story of a curse
first emerged

and captured
the public imagination.

At the center of events
was a famous American heiress...

Evalyn Walsh McLean.

1910.

Evalyn and her husband ned
are on vacation in Paris.

They receive a visit

from one of the world's
most famous jewelers...

Pierre Cartier...

a man on constant lookout
for wealthy customers.

Cartier tells Evalyn
an amazing story.

He's recently acquired a diamond

of unparalleled color, size
and beauty

and with a history to send
shivers up the spine.

The explorer who discovered it,
he says,

stole it from the eye
of a hindu goddess

in an Indian temple.

He was then ripped apart
by wild dogs.

Ever since,
there has been a curse

on whoever owned the diamond.

A French queen wore it and was
beheaded at the guillotine.

The next owners, one of
the richest families in Europe,

were plunged
into financial ruin.

But far from scaring
Evalyn away,

Pierre Cartier's story

only whets her desire
for the diamond.

Evalyn was totally
taken by Cartier's story,

I think she was
entranced by him.

Cartier stage-managed it
so beautifully,

so he was telling the story

and all the time
holding in front of him

this package with
the diamond in it.

For Cartier,
Evalyn is a prime catch.

She agrees to a deal...

she'll buy the Hope Diamond
for $180,000,

over $4 million
in today's money.

But there's one proviso...

if the legendary curse
brings anything terrible

within the next six months,

she'll get her money back.

Evalyn reveled in her diamond.

So here's Evalyn
at home wearing...

She's wearing a gem
around her neck.

And there's the Hope.

She loved the camera.

She'd become her own
kind of director.

Evalyn Walsh McLean's life

had been a true
rags-to-riches story.

She was born in 1886,

the daughter of a gold miner
who struck it rich in Colorado.

At the age of 22,
Evalyn married ned McLean,

whose family owned banks,
a railroad

and the Washington post
newspaper.

Buying the Hope Diamond
was the most exciting moment yet

in the spectacular life
of Evalyn and ned.

They lived a very opulent
life, had everything.

They even built golf holes
when ned became...

was close to senator
and then president Harding.

She had fountains at the estate,
so these were...

this was like being in a massive
Hollywood movie in a way.

Evalyn owned many houses.

The largest one still standing
is a fabulous mansion

which was once
the most expensive property

in Washington, D.C.

Today, it's the home
of the Indonesian embassy

and Evalyn's great-grandson,
Joseph Gregory,

has come to visit.

When you first walk into
the entry hallway of the house,

you see the Tiffany glass

that's in the middle
of the entry hallway.

Now, how many people
during that time

would have something like that?

Not even the president
of the United States

could afford
something like that.

Celebrities, politicians,

even the American president,
Warren g. Harding,

all flocked to Evalyn's parties,

knowing they were in
for an unforgettable night

with the Hope Diamond
at the center

on a most unusual model.

She had a great Dane named Mike,

and Mike would sometimes
wear the Hope Diamond.

Evalyn never believed
that the Hope Diamond curse

would strike her.

But nearly 10 years after she
first laid eyes on the diamond,

her fairytale life
would be shattered.

Death and disaster
would strike her family.

It was a series of events
that would cement

the idea of a curse
in the popular imagination.

Was there something strange
or supernatural

about the Hope Diamond?

Could it be related
to the mysterious red afterglow

that scientists first noticed
in the 1960s?

Looks very much like
a glowing Ember, for example,

in a barbecue grill at night.

You look at these glowing coals,

and that's really what
the diamond reminds me of.

Smithsonian scientists
were beginning to think

of a daring experiment

which they hoped
would show the world

that the riddle of the red glow

was a matter of science,
not superstition.

But while science
would be one tool

to investigate the diamond,

history would be another.

Was there evidence
in the Hope Diamond's journey

to support the idea of a curse?

What was fact
and what was legend?

One thing was certain...

in the mid 17th century,

a French explorer,
Jean baptiste Tavernier,

traveled to an ancient kingdom
in India

in search of precious gemstones.

At that time, India was
the only place in the world

where diamonds
had been discovered.

Historian Omar Khalidi

has studied Tavernier's
own account of his travels

to a place called golkonda.

It was a time when the kingdom of golkonda

was at the height
of its prosperity

and the center
of the world gem trade,

and the purpose
of Tavernier's journey

was to buy diamonds for the
royalty and nobility of France.

Tavernier writes
of visiting a temple

containing a large hindu idol.

"The great idol on the altar

has two diamonds for his eyes,

and the smallest
of these diamonds

weighs about 40 carats."

Tavernier then relates
an extraordinary story

of a local jeweler

who extracted a diamond
from one of the idol's eyes

and was horribly punished.

"As he was about to leave in the morning,

this thief, they say,
died at the door

and the idol performed
this miracle

as a punishment of sacrilege."

Many Indians believed
that diamonds had inherent qualities

which, depending on their color,
could signal danger.

Diamonds had
significance beyond wealth.

White diamonds were signs
of prosperity;

red diamonds were associated
with bravery;

whereas the blue diamonds
were associated

with misfortunes, ill omen,
bad luck and so forth.

On December 6, 1668,

Tavernier appears at
the French court in versailles

carrying an enormous
blue diamond.

There is no record
of him revealing

where or how he's obtained it.

Tavernier's client is
Europe's most illustrious king...

Louis xiv of France.

For historian Lucy Worsley,

Tavernier's glittering diamonds
were the perfect match

for the monarch who called
himself "the sun king."

When Louis xiv was here,

this room was full of light
through the windows,

from the mirrors,
from the candles,

from the silver furniture
and also from the king himself

and the diamonds that he
might have been wearing.

Louis was
the biggest spender of the age.

He single-handedly sparked the
world's obsession with diamonds.

Louis xiv really
created the market in diamonds.

Up until him, the jewel
that everyone had wanted

was the Pearl,
pearls were the thing,

but suddenly Tavernier
arrives from India

with all of these
fabulous new stones,

and Louis xiv buys 40 big ones
and 1,200 little ones,

has them cut,
starts wearing them,

suddenly everyone
wants diamonds,

they're the new craze.

Tavernier grows rich
from this new European craze,

netting the equivalent
of nearly $10 million

for his Indian diamonds,

but the most desirable of all
and Louis' favorite

is an enormous
115-carat dark blue.

But Louis is not fully satisfied

with the diamond Tavernier
has brought him.

He's willing to cut down
a 115-carat diamond

to create something
even more dazzling.

The science of cutting diamonds
to enhance their brilliance

is still new,

but Louis' court jeweler

will create perhaps
the ultimate example.

He grinds and polishes
63 new facets

to create the French Blue.

In the process,
he shrinks it to 69 carats.

It was really a masterful
cutting job of the day.

I mean, you can only imagine
how long it must have taken,

how painstaking
it must have been

with the tools available
at that time,

but what resulted was what was
considered at the time by many

to be the world's
most beautiful diamond.

For four decades,
the French Blue is in the emblem

of the order
of the golden fleece,

part of the French crown jewels.

But by the end
of the 18th century,

time is running out
for the decadent French royals.

And for the queen,
Marie Antoinette,

diamonds will not turn out to be
a girl's best friend.

In July 1789,
public anger spills over

into full blown revolution

against Louis xvi
and his diamond-loving queen.

Pierre Cartier will later relish
telling Evalyn Walsh McLean

that Marie Antoinette
wore the French Blue

around her delicate neck,

a neck that will soon be chopped
by the guillotine.

The crown jewels are moved
to this building,

the royal warehouse,
for safekeeping.

They will not be safe for long.

September 1792.

A gang of professional thieves

commits the greatest heist
in history.

The robbers climb up the outside
of the royal warehouse.

They break into the jewel room

and take off
with a glittering haul.

Amazingly, no one
notices the theft

and they return
over the next five nights.

By the end, they get away with
nearly all the crown jewels,

a priceless collection

that includes the order
of the golden fleece

with its dazzling
French Blue Diamond.

It will never be seen again.

So what happened
to the French Blue?

In 1812, 20 years
after the theft

of the French crown jewels,

a mysterious blue diamond
appears

in a jeweler's shop in London.

A memorandum authenticates
its size and shape.

It compares to the French Blue,

but there's
one obvious difference.

It's a completely
different size.

The French Blue is 67 carats,

a little more than 67 carats.

This gem is 44 carats,

and the question is
at that time, in 1812,

at the time of this memorandum,

nobody was really asking whether
these diamonds were the same,

so this was thought to be
just a new diamond.

The new London blue's
next destination

has never been proved,

but the finger points
to none other

than the future British king,
George iv.

It's just so tempting
to think that George iv

was the ideal purchaser.

Who else could have afforded it?

Who else would have wanted it?

But what we don't have
is any kind of documentation

from the royal archives

or connected
with George personally,

saying, "yeah,
I bought the diamond."

In 1830, George IV dies.

Shortly afterwards,
the London blue diamond

reappears again
in documented historical fact.

It's bought by the man

who will give the diamond
its famous name,

a wealthy British banker,
Henry Philip Hope.

In 1851 the Hope Diamond
goes on display

at the great exhibition
in London.

It's a sensation.

But a French gem expert now puts
forward an extraordinary theory.

He suggests
that the Hope Diamond

might be a re-cut version
of the French Blue,

which had disappeared
in the French revolution.

The theory would remain unproven
until as recently as 2005,

when scientists from
the Smithsonian and new Mexico

finally solved the mystery.

Using computer-aided geometry,
they modeled both diamonds.

They then created a replica
of the French Blue

and a mold that
precisely fit it.

The next move was to insert
the smaller Hope Diamond

into the mold
and inject it with wax.

They found that the Hope Diamond

would fit snugly
inside the French Blue.

There was only one conclusion.

The Hope Diamond
that we know today

is in fact the only
surviving piece

of the stone that was
originally sold

to king Louis xiv of France
in 1668.

So did those
who possessed the diamond

during this murky period

suffer from a curse?

George IV certainly met
an agonizing end.

He died in pain, overweight
and suffering from gout.

Fortune would also not smile
on the Hope family.

In 1887, 21-year-old
lord Francis Hope

inherits the family estate,
art collection

and famous blue diamond.

But he's about to lose it all

thanks partly
to an American showgirl

named may yohe.

He treated her extremely well,

he wanted to impress
this American gal.

He actually was part owner
of the lyric theatre in London,

and he arranged for her
to get a contract there

and become a leading lady.

He financed,
he owned the newspaper,

and he really promoted
and marketed her

because he wanted her to shine.

But for lord Francis Hope,

may yohe turns out to be
a ruinous extravagance.

To maintain her lifestyle,

he gambles away the equivalent
of $75 million,

squandering the family fortune.

In 1901, may leaves him

and later makes a Hollywood
movie of their life,

blaming their downfall on
the curse of the blue diamond.

Lord Francis is forced to sell
the Hope Diamond.

He dies financially ruined.

For several years, the gemstone
crisscrosses the Atlantic,

looking for a buyer,

until finally Pierre Cartier
finds Evalyn Walsh McLean.

[Jazz music playing]

In her early years of owning it,

the Hope Diamond had brought
Evalyn nothing but pleasure.

The curse was just a story.

But then a series of tragedies
struck her family

and propelled the curse
onto the world stage.

While Evalyn is away
at the Kentucky derby,

her 9-year-old son vinson
is playing near the road

in front of their estate
in northwest Washington.

The boy runs out in front
of a passing Ford model t.

[Horn honks]

[Crash]

He's knocked to the ground,

his head smashing
into the concrete.

Vinson!

My god, what happened?

A few hours later,
vinson Walsh McLean dies

and the family's misfortune
becomes headline news.

Get some help, man.

And on the next day
in the papers,

in the New York times

and following in other papers
around the country,

people speculated
was this yet another instance

of the curse
of the Hope Diamond?

Evalyn Walsh McLean's dream life

is shattered in an instant.

After vinson's death,
the bad luck multiplies.

The Washington post
goes bankrupt

and the McLean family fortune
is decimated.

Evalyn's marriage falls apart.

Her husband ned ends up
in an insane asylum,

and their only daughter commits
suicide at the age of 25.

Evalyn always insisted she
didn't believe in the legend,

but when she died at 60
after a lifetime of tragedies,

she had become the embodiment
of the curse.

Her lavish collection of jewels
was put up for sale

with the Hope Diamond
as the star attraction.

Whether it was science,
history or legend,

one thing seemed clear...

the Hope Diamond
was unlike any other,

and the discovery in the 1960s
of its mysterious red glow

or phosphorescence,
as scientists call it,

only reinforced the mystery.

Why does it show this,
this very intense phosphorescence

that seemed to be unusual

and perhaps even unique
to the Hope Diamond?

To test whether
the Hope really is unique,

Jeff post needs to compare it
with other blue diamonds,

but blues are very rare.

Jeff and his colleague
Eloise Gaillou

travel to New York City's
diamond district

to the one man
he knows can help, a dealer...

Alan Bronstein.

We've gotten together
about 90 blue diamonds for him,

which have a variety of shades

and have a variety
of saturations

and grayness modification,

so that is, that's a large
number of blue diamonds

to have in one place to study
at one time.

Using a spectrometer to
measure the wavelengths of light,

they flood the stones
with ultraviolet.

When they turn off the light,

their instrument picks up
the phosphorescence.

Ok, so we have
a really strong peak

in the blue/green portion
of the spectrum,

just the opposite of what we see
in the Hope Diamond.

We were surprised to see that,

in all of the blue diamonds
that we've looked at so far,

and it's approaching
80 blue diamonds,

all of them show
a phosphorescence.

All blue diamonds glow,

but the experiment shows

that each has its own
distinctive signature.

Some red like the Hope,
others blue/green...

and none shines as intensely
or for as long as the Hope.

So why do blue diamonds have
this eerie phosphorescence?

The fact that we only see

this particular kind of
phosphorescence in blue diamonds

strongly suggests
that it is correlated

with the presence of boron.

Boron is an element like carbon,

a basic building block of nature
found, for example, in soap.

But it's extremely rare
deep in the earth

where diamonds are formed.

The Hope Diamond glows
far more intensely

and longer than any
of the smaller diamonds,

so what impact might boron
be having inside it?

To find out, Jeff post
will have to take

a sample from the Hope Diamond.

The only way to do that seems
almost unthinkable.

He will have to drill
into america's crown jewel.

His experiment
would not be possible

if the diamond were still
adorning someone's neck.

But thanks to
a surprising donation,

the Hope became
a specimen for science.

After Evalyn Walsh McLean died,

the next owner was the jeweler
to the stars, Harry Winston.

Many believe Harry Winston will
simply remount the Hope Diamond

and find a new buyer,

but he knows it might now
be a hard sell.

Think about it this way...

he knew of the curse story.

He knew also
that the cost itself,

the price of the stone,
went into the millions.

To find a client willing to buy

a quote, unquote "cursed" stone
for that amount of money

might have been a huge problem.

Instead, Winston
begins to think of an act

of extraordinary philanthropy...

he will donate the Hope Diamond
to the Smithsonian institution.

But when the news
of his intention leaks out,

not everyone is delighted.

A vocal minority is petrified by
what might happen to the nation.

One American writes
to the Smithsonian...

"With our neighbor Russia

able to blow our country
to pieces

in a few hours
of missile bombardment,

it would be insane to tempt fate

by having anything to do
with this ghastly gem."

Actually, people even
bypassed the Smithsonian.

They wrote
to president eisenhower

and they said, "are you crazy?

This Hope dia...
this diamond is cursed."

But the Smithsonian
doesn't flinch.

They accept the diamond.

You would think Winston
would send his priceless diamond

in an armored car.

Instead, what does he do?

What he always did.

He mails it by regular post.

Today, here came
a brown paper wrapped package

sent by registered mail
for $152 postage.

New York diamond merchant...

Winston's
unusual delivery method

ensures news coverage
throughout the country.

A gift to the Smithsonian
worth a million dollars...

the Hope Diamond, the biggest
blue diamond in the world.

The jewel is put
in a specially designed safe

where the public can view it
through bullet-proof glass.

With the Hope Diamond
coming here,

Harry Winston's vision
started to unfold...

that is, to build a great
national gem collection.

As he liked to say,
we don't have a king and queen,

but we should have
our crown jewels.

50 years after Harry
Winston gave Hope to america,

his company has offered
to create

an anniversary party dress
for the diamond...

a new, temporary setting

using modern design techniques
to showcase its brilliance.

Our rule in this studio

is to start with no limitation.

With no constraint of price,
of size, of craziness,

of anything.

What you want to do is
enhance the color and the size

and the life of that stone
without overpowering.

From 25 initial sketches,

the Smithsonian selects
three finalists...

But the final selection
is in the hands

of the Hope Diamond's
true owners.

We really wanted to involve
the American audience,

the American public,
to have them choose the necklace

that would surround
the Hope Diamond.

The fate of the Hope Diamond,

it's all in your hands!

Hope takes on
a new design for a famous jewel.

The public will get to decide

what setting it will have.

Starting today, you can
help pick one of those settings.

As the Hope Diamond
goes on display

for the first time
out of its historic setting,

over 100,000 votes flood in.

And the winner is...

Embracing Hope.

Creating such a complex setting

will take a pound of platinum,
over 300 baguette diamonds,

and months of painstaking work.

But some might wonder:

By changing the setting,
even temporarily,

could they be invoking
the legendary curse?

Over the centuries,
the diamond has acquired

an unsavory reputation
as a producer of bad luck.

Within a year of
its donation to the Smithsonian,

the Hope appeared
to claim another victim...

the mailman James Todd.

He was injured by a truck,

his wife died
and his house burned down.

Over the years, letters
have continued to arrive

at the national gem collection

warning of the curse.

But for Jeff post,
all the curse stories

are fantasy
or simple coincidence.

For 50 years, the Hope Diamond

has brought the Smithsonian
nothing but good luck

and fascinating
scientific puzzles.

For him the real story
is buried far deeper,

in the science of its creation.

In fact, in many ways

the more incredible part
of the Hope Diamond story

is the one that started perhaps
two or three billion years ago

deep in the earth's
upper mantle.

It's 7:30 pm

at the national museum
of natural history.

The last members of the public
leave, and all goes quiet.

Tonight, Jeff post will remove
the Hope Diamond

and subject it
to an audacious experiment.

The goal of doing this work

isn't to try to dispel a curse.

The goal is to learn
about the Hope Diamond

and its history and its origin.

He and his team are
about to do the unthinkable...

drill into the Hope Diamond

to extract atoms
and unravel its DNA.

They're using a time of flight
secondary ion mass spectrometer.

It's an instrument
more often used

to test chemical substances,

for example,
for traces of steroids.

They're about to open a window

into a world more than
a billion years old,

when the diamond was created.

The instrument fires beams
of tiny particles

called gallium ions

onto the surface
of the Hope Diamond.

The ions blast a crater
invisible to the naked eye

from which hundreds
of millions of atoms

are sucked back
into the machine,

where they're sorted by weight
and counted.

It sounds a bit destructive

and in fact it is a little bit
of a destructive process.

Blasting is perhaps
too strong a word,

but it gives you the idea.

It'll be gouging or blasting
a small little tiny crater

into the diamond.

It will sort of drill down
through the surface

into the next several
layers of atoms,

knocking out
some of those atoms,

and we will be making
a very tiny little hole

in the Hope Diamond.

He hopes to finally
reveal exactly what happened

when the Hope Diamond was born.

Two months pass.

Hundreds of millions of atoms

have been extracted
and analyzed.

This photo, taken
under ultraviolet light,

indicates areas where
the samples were taken,

but the holes are far too tiny
to see with the naked eye.

The presence of boron is
just as Jeff post anticipated,

but the headline result

is that there's only
a tiny amount of it,

and the big surprise is that
it's not evenly distributed.

Boron makes
the Hope Diamond blue,

but its uneven distribution

gives a new insight
to that blueness.

The Hope Diamond probably
isn't uniformly blue.

What we're seeing with the eye

is actually a summation
of all of the blue,

different shades of blue
in the diamond,

sort of a mosaic of blues
in a sense,

and that the blue color
varies slightly

with the concentration,

the amounts of boron
that are present.

But the most significant outcome

is to show that it's
the boron atoms...

acting with the carbon

and another unidentified atom
in the diamond...

that are producing
the mysterious red glow.

When an ultraviolet light ray
passes through the diamond,

it strikes a carbon atom
and spins off an electron,

which gets trapped
in the unidentified atom.

At the same time,

a positive charge spins off
from the carbon atom

and gets trapped in the boron.

Attracted by
the positive charge,

the electron jumps
to the boron atom.

It's that collision that causes
the burst of red light.

This process happens
over and over

in the diamond lattice,

and because some boron atoms

are farther away
from the unidentified atoms,

the glow continues
for up to a minute.

Science has explained

the Hope Diamond's
inner secrets,

which leaves only the curse.

Back in 1910, Pierre Cartier
had told Evalyn Walsh McLean

his amazing story...

the explorer who'd stolen
the Hope Diamond

from the eye of a hindu goddess

and been ripped apart
by wild dogs;

the French queen who'd worn it
and lost her head;

the family who'd been ruined.

All struck down
by the legendary curse.

America's library of congress
houses an extensive collection,

which Richard Kurin used
to research the Hope's curse.

The more he found out,

the more holes he discovered
in Cartier's story.

Tavernier wasn't killed
by wild dogs.

He died of old age in Russia.

There was no evidence
that Marie Antoinette

ever even wore the French Blue.

You know, when it
was sold to the mcleans,

the New York times
on the front page said,

"this is an ancient curse."

As I started to go through
the historical records,

I did not find any mention
of any curse of the Hope Diamond

before the 1900s.

"Remarkable jewel a hoodoo."

"Hope Diamond has brought
trouble to all who've owned it."

If the curse was real,

its owners could be expected
to have lived short lives,

but did they?

Kurin went back
through the records

and investigated
all their lifespans.

The average
life expectancy of people

that have owned
the Hope Diamond, direct owners,

is about 72 years old.

That is quite a long lifespan,

considering that we're talking
about people, you know,

like Tavernier
and kings of France

that lived in the 17th
and 18th centuries.

You find that actually people
that have owned the Hope Diamond

lived extraordinarily
long lives,

longer than the average.

There could only be
one conclusion...

the curse was an invention,

the brainchild
of Pierre Cartier,

who fabricated
the tallest of tales

to whet Evalyn Walsh McLean's
appetite for the diamond.

Cartier's brilliant sales pitch
had created for the Hope Diamond

a legendary mystique
that elevated it

into one of the world's
most valuable artifacts.

It has survived great journeys,
dramatic disappearances

and radical re-designs.

And now, it's about
to get another.

Harry Winston is putting
the finishing touches

on the Hope Diamond's
new setting.

In order to create a piece of art

that's wearable,

that actually conforms
to the wearer's neck,

is always a challenge.

And what we are doing
in this case

is we are actually hinging
every single setting.

And in order to create this
fluid, very feminine design,

in platinum, with 300 stones
and 60 carats of diamonds,

it's a tremendous amount of
workmanship that goes into it.

We've actually accomplished
a necklace

that would normally take
about a year to make

within about 8 months.

So for US it was
a bit of a labor of love.

David Schwartz and
his team bring the completed setting

to the natural history museum.

The embracing Hope necklace.

Oh, my gosh. Wow!

That is spectacular!

All we need is a diamond
in the center there.

Schwartz:
Yeah, that's all we need.

It's ready for the Hope.

It does look like it was
made for it, doesn't it?

Exactly.

Now the tricky part.

It's been a hundred years

since the Hope Diamond was put
in a new setting.

One wrong move could damage the
world's most valuable gemstone.

But it's in masterful hands.

Pavel bespalko has been crafting
jewelry for over 30 years.

One of his secrets
is listening to chopin

to maintain his concentration.

Winston has brought
his work bench from New York

to ensure he has
everything he needs.

That's it!

A single screw is all it takes

to hold the set diamond
in its ribbons of platinum.

I find the design
extremely inspiring.

I just personally love it.

You really see there
the two hands

of somebody holding the world,
holding the rarest gem on earth.

And it is a symbol of generosity

when you put your two hands
like that.

To showcase the new setting,

the museum has tapped
a hometown girl:

Estee lauder model hilary rhoda.

I'm actually
from Chevy chase, Maryland,

and that's why it's also
really nice to come back here

and to the Smithsonian

and shoot this amazing diamond
on my neck.

It does feel heavy.

I'm feeling very expensive
right now.

My mom and I were walking
into the museum today

and she's like,
"you know it's cursed, right?"

And I was like, "what? No!"

I looked it up, and you know,

apparently it's just
an urban myth, right?

I'm hoping?

50th anniversary party dress

will be on display for a year

before the diamond returns
to its historical setting.

We focus a lot on
the history of the Hope Diamond.

We're thinking about that

as something that's always
happened a long time ago,

which in a sense it has,

except tonight is
part of history, too.

And the history of
the Hope Diamond continues.

And as long as people come
to see this diamond

or have an interest in it,

whatever happens to it
will become part of that story.

It's fun to in a sense

be a part of this moment
in its history

and realize that it is
something very special.

Her birthstone is the diamond,

and her monogram is h.R.H.,

her royal highness,
which is, I think,

very fitting, very regal.

This stone carries
more than 350 years

of the most incredible history,

and that makes the Hope Diamond
the rarest gem

and the most mythical stone

on earth.