More notorious than any other diamond, the 45.2 carat Blue Hope diamond was once owned by Louis XIV and was officially designated "The blue diamond of the crown."

Stolen during the French Revolution, it turned up in London in 1830 and was bought by Henry Philip Hope, after whom it is currently named. It was while the Hope diamond was in the possession of the Hope family that it acquired its gruesome reputation for bad luck. All his family died in poverty. A similar misfortune befell a later owner, Mr. Edward McLean.

The Blue Hope diamond is now on display in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.