The Black Orlov Diamond is a 67.50-carat cut black diamond and said to be the 7th largest black diamond in the world. This beautiful diamond though has a dark history and is shrouded in mystery. Over the years some people who have owned this diamond have committed suicide by jumping off buildings leading many to connect these strange deaths among owners of the diamond. Many as a result have come to believe the diamond itself is cursed. In this article, we’ll explore whether these suicides are the result of a cursed diamond or just depressed individuals who happened to kill themselves in a similar fashion. We will explore this alleged cursed stone and its checkered past.
According to reports, in 19th century India, a 195-carat uncut black diamond sat in the eyes of a statue of the Hindu God of Creation, Brahma. The statue resided in the southern India city of Pondicherry.
Sometimes referred to as the “Eye of Brahma”, this stone was allegedly stolen from the statue by a travelling monk and then it became cursed.
The first person to experience the wrath of the curse was a European diamond dealer named J. W. Paris. Paris brought the diamond to the US in 1932. He sold the diamond and one week later, on April 7th of that same year, Paris climbed to the top of a Manhattan skyscraper on fifth avenue and leapt to his death. Paris was the first victim of the curse, although he wouldn’t be the last.
15 years later, members of Russian royalty would fall victims.
In 1947, Princess Leonila Viktorovna-Bariatinsky committed suicide by leaping off a tall building. Later it was discovered that prior to her death, she had owned the Black Orlov Diamond, although the time period she owned it is not well documented.
That same year only one month later, Russian heir Princess Nadia Vygin-Orlov, leapt to her death from a building in central Rome on December 2, 1947. Orlov became the third victim to commit suicide after owning the massive black diamond. It’s reported she was married to a Russian jeweler and was living in Rome when she jumped. The diamond would eventually be named after her.
Still, the Orlov family was said to have another diamond that brought misfortune.
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A second diamond was said to haunt the Orlov family. This was a 180-carat white diamond that had been given to Catherine the great by her secret lover Count Grigori Grigorievich Orlov.
Many say Count Grigori was obsessed with the Grand Duchess Catherine and he had given the diamond as a symbol of his love. It is said he desperately wanted to steal her away from her husband, Emperor Peter III.
However, things didn’t end well for Count Grigirio as Catherine lost interest in him. It is said he eventually went insane and died shortly after this.
Still, it’s almost impossible to discuss cursed diamonds without mentioning the World’s most famous cursed diamond, the Hope Diamond. The Hope Diamond is a 45.52-carat blue diamond whose owners have met terrible misfortunes such as financial ruin, suicide, and even beheadings. Owners of this diamond include King Louie XVI and Marie Antoinette who were both beheaded. Henry Phillip Hope would later buy the diamond in 1739 and die shortly after he published the diamond in his catalog. Other owners of the diamond would run into misfortune as well including Jeweler Wilhelm Fals. He bought the diamond, and soon after his son killed him, stole the stone, and later committed suicide. Years later, heiress Evalyn Walsh McLean purchased the cursed diamond and experienced the deaths of her son at age 9 and daughter, aged 25. Soon after this, her husband left her, and he went insane.
Without question, the Hope Diamond’s owners have faced misfortune, but what makes the the Orlov curse so strange is how several of the owners committed suicide in almost identical fashion.
As rumors of the beautiful black diamond’s bad luck persisted, one man decided to break the curse
In the 1950’s, Charles F. Winson bought the diamond and decided to split it into three parts in order to break the curse. It took 2 years but then the result was a 67.5-carat Black Orlov, along with a 108-diamond brooch, that was suspended from a necklace adorned with 124 diamonds.
After this split, it appears the curse was broken.
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Years later in 2004, Dennis Petimezas, a diamond trader, purchased the diamond and had no unexpected bad luck.
While the legend says that the diamond came from a statue in India, many question the origin. Diamond experts say that not many black diamonds originate from that part of the world. That raises more question as to where this stone originally came from.
While we probably never know the answer, we do know that many of the people who possessed the stone for some reason decided to end their own lives. One strange coincidence from this story is that all three of the victims ended their lived by jumping from buildings. It might just all be coincidence or there could be something else at play.
