Hope Diamond is deep blue colored weighing 45.52 carats and is famous for being supposedly cursed.

According to specious later accounts, the original form of the Hope Diamond was stolen from an eye of a sculpted idol of the Hindu goddess Sita, the wife of Rama, the Sixth Avatar of Vishnu. However, much like the "curse of Tutankhamun", this general type of "legend" was the invention of Western authors during the Victorian era, and the specific legends about the Hope Diamond's "cursed origin" were invented in the early 20th century to add mystique to the stone and increase its sales appeal

September 30th, 2009 Smithsonian displays Hope Diamond without setting

On February 9, 2005, the Smithsonian Institution published the findings of its year-long computer-aided geometry research on the gem and officially acknowledged the Hope Diamond is part of the stolen French Blue crown jewel.

On August 19th 2009, the Smithsonian Institution announced that the Hope Diamond is to get a temporary new setting to celebrate a half-century at the National Museum of Natural History. Starting in September, the 45.52 carat diamond will be exhibited as a stand-alone gem with no setting.

From August 19 2009 through September 7, 2009, the public was being invited to vote online for their favorite Harry Winston designed setting, at SmithsonianChannel.com/hope. The winning setting will be announced this fall and the gem will be shown in the setting starting in May, along with a Smithsonian Networks documentary.

On September 27 2009, the Hope Diamond went back on display at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History.

Hope Diamond is currently housed in Smithsonian Natural History Museum in Washington, D.C.

Hope Diamond, a 45.52 carats, deep blue colored, famous-for-being supposedly cursed diamond is naked for the public.

Weight: 45.52 carats (9.10 g) Color: Fancy Dark Grayish Blue (GIA) Country of Origin: India Estimated Value: $300–$350 million USD £150-£175 million GBP

François Farges, Scott Sucher, Herbert Horovitz and Jean-Marc Fourcault (September 2008), Revue de Gemmologie, vol. 165, pp. 17–24 (in French) (English version to be published in 2009 in Gems & Gemology)

Marian Fowler, Hope: Adventures of a Diamond, Ballantine (March, 2002), hardcover, ISBN 0-345-44486-8.

Stephen C. Hofer, Collecting and Classifying Coloured Diamonds, Ashland Press 1998, ISBN 0-9659410-1-9

Janet Hubbard-Brown, The Curse of the Hope Diamond (History Mystery), Harpercollins Children's Books (October, 1991), trade paperback, ISBN 0-380-76222-6.

Richard Kurin, Hope Diamond: The Legendary History of a Cursed Gem, New York: HarperCollins Publishers & Smithsonian Press, 2006. hardcover, ISBN 0060873515.

Susanne Steinem Patch, Blue Mystery : The Story of the Hope Diamond, Random House (April, 1999), trade paperback, ISBN 0-8109-2797-7; hardcover ISBN 0-517-63610-7.

Edwin Streeter, The Great Diamonds of the World, George Bell & Sons, (Jan, 1898), hardcover, no ISBN known.

Richard W. Wise, Secrets Of The Gem Trade, The Connoisseur's Guide To Precious Gemstones, Brunswick House Pres (2003) ISBN 0-9728223-8-0