Editing Hope Diamond (section)

=== United States (1902–present) ===
[[File:HopeDiamondwithLighting2.JPG|thumb|The Hope Diamond with case lights turned on.]]
Accounts vary about what happened to the diamond during the years 1902–1907; one account suggested that it lay in the William & Theodore safe during these years while the jewelers took it out periodically to show it to wealthy Americans; a rival account, probably invented to help add "mystery" to the Hope Diamond story, suggested that some persons had bought it but apparently sold it back to Frankel.<ref name=twsI44bb/> There were reports in one story in ''[[The New York Times]]'' of several owners of the gem, perhaps who had bought it from Frankel and owned it temporarily who met with ill-fortune,<ref>{{Cite web |title=History of the Hope Diamond |url=https://www.si.edu/spotlight/hope-diamond/history |access-date=2021-05-08 |website=Smithsonian Institution |language=en}}</ref> but this report conflicts with the more likely possibility that the gem remained in the hands of the Frankel jewelry firm during these years. Like many jewelry firms, the Frankel business ran into financial difficulties during the [[depression of 1907]] and referred to the gem as the "hoodoo diamond."<ref name=twsI44bb/><ref name="w679">{{cite news| title= The Relentless "Thaw Hoodoo"| work=Atlanta Georgian |location= Atlanta, Georgia| via=The Library of Congress | date=January 18, 1914 | url=https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn89053729/1914-01-18/ed-3/?sp=50& | access-date=December 20, 2024}}</ref>

In 1908, Frankel sold the diamond for $400,000 (${{Inflation|US|0.4|1908|r=2|fmt=c}} million today)<ref>Note: The $400,000 price may have been exaggerated, since a newspaper report in 1908 was that experts had thought it was inflated, and that the true price at that time may have been closer to the "air bidding price" of $250,000 (${{Inflation|US|0.25|1908|r=2|fmt=c}} million today); for further information see [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00D10FA3F5A17738DDDAF0894DD405B888CF1D3 NY Times article 1908] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140327054836/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00D10FA3F5A17738DDDAF0894DD405B888CF1D3 |date=March 27, 2014 }}</ref> to a Salomon or Selim Habib, a wealthy Turkish diamond collector,<ref name=twsI43/> reportedly on behalf of Sultan [[Abdul Hamid II|Abdulhamid]] of the Ottoman Empire; however, on June 24, 1909, the stone was included in an auction of Habib's assets to settle his own debts,<ref name=twsI44fof/> and the auction catalog explicitly stated that the Hope Diamond was one of only two gems in the collection which had never been owned by the Sultan. A contrary report, however, suggested that Sultan Abdul Hamid did own the gem but ordered Habib to sell it when his throne "began to totter."<ref name=twsI44bb/> Habib reportedly sold the stone in Paris in 1909 for $80,000 (${{Inflation|US|0.08|1909|r=2|fmt=c}} million today).<ref name=twsI44bb/> The Parisian jewel merchant Simon Rosenau bought the Hope Diamond for 400,000 [[franc]]s and resold it in 1910 to [[Pierre Cartier (jeweler)|Pierre Cartier]] for 550,000 francs. In 1910, it was offered for $150,000 (${{Inflation|US|0.15|1910|r=2|fmt=c}} million today), according to one report.<ref name="twsI41">{{Cite news |date=October 30, 1910 |title=Hope Diamond Again Offered for Sale; Price Said to be Only $150,000, Though It Once Was Bought for $400,000. May Come to America Prospective Buyers Inspect it in London – Stone Has a Remarkable History |work=The New York Times |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30C11F9345D16738DDDA90B94D8415B808DF1D3 |access-date=July 9, 2011}}</ref>

[[File:Edward Beale McLean and Evalyn Walsh.png|thumb|''[[Washington Post]]'' scion [[Edward Beale McLean]] and his wife, mining heiress [[Evalyn Walsh McLean]], in 1912. The couple owned the Hope Diamond for many years.]]
Pierre Cartier tried to sell the Hope Diamond to Washington, D.C. [[socialite]] [[Evalyn Walsh McLean]] and her husband in 1910.<ref name=twsI35/> Cartier was a consummate salesman who used an understated presentation to entice Mrs. McLean.<ref name=twsI44nnx/> He described the gem's illustrious history to her while keeping it concealed underneath special wrapping paper.<ref name=twsI44nnx/> The suspense worked: McLean became impatient to the point where she suddenly requested to see the stone. She recalled later that Cartier "held before our eyes the Hope Diamond."<ref name="twsI44nnx">{{Cite news |last=Evalyn Walsh McLean |date=July 9, 2011 |title=...the diamond's notorious past |publisher=PBS |url=https://www.pbs.org/treasuresoftheworld/a_nav/hope_nav/hnav_level_1/1_past_hopfrm.html |access-date=July 9, 2011}}</ref> Nevertheless, she initially rejected the offer. Cartier had it reset. She found the stone much more appealing in this new modern style. There were conflicting reports about the sale in ''[[The New York Times]]''; one account suggested that the young McLean couple had agreed to purchase the diamond, but after having learned about its unfortunate supposed history, the couple had wanted to back out of the deal<ref name="twsI44gg">{{Cite news |date=March 12, 1911 |title=M'Leans Didn't Know Hope Diamond Tale; Wealthy Couple Unaware That the Famous Gem Had Brought Misfortune to Its Owners |work=The New York Times |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10716F6385517738DDDAB0994DB405B818DF1D3 |access-date=July 9, 2011}}</ref> since they knew nothing of the "history of misfortunes that have beset its various owners."<ref name=twsI44gg/>
{{blockquote|Both Ned McLean and his pretty wife are quite young, and in a way unsophisticated, although they were born and reared in an atmosphere of wealth and luxury. All their lives they have known more of jewelry, finery, banquets, automobiles, horses, and other articles of pleasure than they have of books, with their wealth of knowledge.|report in ''The New York Times'', March 1911<ref name=twsI44gg/>}}

The brouhaha over the diamond's supposed "ill luck" prompted a worried editor of ''The Jewelers' Circular-Weekly'' to write:
{{blockquote|No mention of any ill luck having befallen Eliason, Hope, or any of their descendants was ever made. The Frankels surely were very prosperous while the stone was in their possession, as were the dealers who held it in Europe. Habib's misfortune referred to in the newspaper accounts occurred long after he had sold the stone... As Francis Hope never had the stone and May Yohe probably never saw it ... the newspaper accounts at the time mentioned were laughed at, but since then it has been the custom not only to revive these stories every time mention of the stone appears in the public press, but to add to them fictitious incidents of misfortune as to alleged possessors of the stone at various times.|T. Edgar Willson, in an editorial in ''The New York Times'', 1911<ref name=twsI44mm/>}}

The tenuous deal involved wrangling among attorneys for both Cartier and the McLeans, but finally, in 1911, the couple bought the gem for over $300,000 (over ${{Inflation|US|0.3|1911|r=1|fmt=c}} million today),<ref name="twsI44bb">{{Cite news |date=January 29, 1911 |title=J.R. M'Lean'sS Son Buys Hope Diamond; $300,000 for Jewel Owned by Louis XVI and Worn by Marie Antoinette and May Yohe |work=The New York Times |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30813F63C5517738DDDA00A94D9405B818DF1D3 |access-date=July 9, 2011}}</ref> although there are differing estimates of the sales price at $150,000 and $180,000. An alternative scenario is that the McLeans may have fabricated concern about the supposed "curse" to generate publicity to increase the value of their investment.

A description was that the gemstone "lay on a bed of white silk and surrounded by many small white diamonds cut pear shaped".<ref name=twsI44bb/> The new setting was the current platinum framework surrounded by a row of sixteen diamonds which alternated between old mine cut and pear-shaped variants. Mrs. McLean wore it to a "brilliant reception" in February 1912 when it was reported that it was the first time it had been worn in public since it had "changed owners."<ref name="twsI44dd">{{Cite news |date=February 3, 1912 |title=Hope Diamond Worn at M'Lean Dinner; Famous Gem Seen for the First Time in Public Since It Changed Owners |work=The New York Times |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00C17FB3C5813738DDDAA0894DA405B828DF1D3 |access-date=July 9, 2011}}</ref> She would "sport the diamond at social events"<ref name=twsI35/> and wore it to numerous social occasions that she had organized.
{{blockquote|The Hope Diamond in its original pendant must have looked fantastic at parties circa the 1920s, when it hung around the neck of owner Evalyn Walsh McLean's Great Dane, Mike.|report in ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'', 2010<ref name="twsI42">{{Cite news |last=Nancy DeWolf Smith |date=November 19, 2010 |title=Searching Lennon's Psyche |work=The Wall Street Journal |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704104104575622703876033526 |access-date=2011-07-09}}</ref>}}

There were reports that she misplaced it at parties,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Lyons, Leonard |date=May 1, 1947 |title=Mrs. MacLean's Fabulous Diamond Frequently Lost Like A Bauble |work=The Miami News |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=bAgtAAAAIBAJ&pg=6186,229769&dq=stork+club |access-date=September 12, 2010}}{{Dead link|date=December 2021 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> deliberately and frequently, and then make a children's game out of "finding the Hope", and times when she hid the diamond somewhere on her estate during the "lavish parties she threw and invite guests to find it."<ref name=twsI35/> The stone prompted elaborate security precautions:

{{blockquote|William Schindele, a former Secret Service man, has been engaged to guard the stone. He in turn will be guarded by Leo Costello and Simeon Blake, private detectives. The stone will be kept at the McLean mansion during the day and each night will be deposited in a safe deposit vault. When Mrs. McLean wears the gem at balls and receptions arrangements have been made to keep the safe deposit building open until after the function that the stone may be safely stored away. A special automobile has been purchased to convey the guards to and from the house to the trust company's building.|report in ''[[The New York Times]]'', 1911<ref name=twsI44bb/>}}

But the stone was not stolen during their ownership. When Mrs. McLean died in 1947, she bequeathed the diamond to her grandchildren through a will which insisted that her former property would remain in the custody of [[trustee]]s until the eldest child had reached 25 years of age. This requirement would have prevented any sale for the next two decades. However, the trustees gained permission to sell her jewels to settle her debts, and in 1949 sold them to [[New York City|New York]] diamond merchant [[Harry Winston]]. He purchased McLean's "entire jewelry collection".<ref name=twsI35/> Over the next decade, Winston exhibited McLean's necklace in his "Court of Jewels," a tour of jewels around the United States,<ref name=twsI35/> as well as various promotional events and charity balls. The diamond appeared on the television quiz show ''[[The Name's the Same]]'', in an episode which first aired on August 16, 1955,<ref name="tws3JanW11">{{Cite news |date=August 16, 1955 |title=Clifton Fadiman (biography) |work=Hollywood Walk of Fame |url=http://hwof.com/star/radio/clifton-fadiman/1225?switcher=true |url-status=dead |access-date=January 23, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151211043726/http://hwof.mobi/star/radio/clifton-fadiman/1225?switcher=true |archive-date=December 11, 2015 |df=mdy-all}}</ref> when a teenaged contestant with the actual name ''Hope Diamond'' was one of the mystery guests, as well as at the August 1958 [[Canadian National Exhibition]].<ref name=twsI34/> At some point, Winston also had the Hope Diamond's bottom [[facet]] slightly recut to increase its brilliance.