Often described as the most famous diamond in the world, the Hope Diamond’s beauty is only rivaled by its infamy. Throughout it’s long recorded history, many who have made contact with the diamond have succumbed to it’s “curse,” experiencing misfortune and loss, some of which proved to be deadly.

While some say this supposed curse is just superstition, the number of people who have met their ends soon after possessing the diamond is seriously disturbing.

The diamond was formed deep below the Earth’s surface approximately 1.1 billion years ago. According to legend, its first victim was a Hindu priest in 1515, who stole it from his own temple. He was caught and tortured to death.

The diamond found its way into the hands of French trader Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, who sold it for enough money to purchase a lovely estate. But in a horrible twist of fate, Tavernier’s son gambled away the entire fortune, and Tavernier himself was eaten by a pack of wild dogs.

Nicolas Fouquet, a French nobleman, borrowed the diamond from its owner, Louis XIV. Fouquet soon was arrested for embezzlement and publicly disgraced.

Another member of French nobility in the late 1700s, Princess Marie Louise would regularly wear the diamond. During the massacres of 1792, she was raped and beaten to death in the streets.

Two more owners of the stone — Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette — were executed by guillotine during the French Revolution in 1793.

Although never proven, it’s said that Catherine the Great of Russia was in possession of the stone just before she died of apoplexy in 1796.

The jewel found it’s way to Henry Thomas Hope, who gave the diamond its name. He paid £30,000 for it, but soon brought the family into debt and despair.

Sultan Abdul Hamid bought the Hope diamond for $400,000. He was overtaken by the Young Turks Revolution soon after.

The diamond’s curse was especially potent on the Mclean family, though not right away. Eight years after the American purchased it, one of Ned Mclean’s young sons was hit by a car. Mclean himself lost his money and died in a mental institute. His daughter Evalyn died of a drug overdose.

It wasn’t until 1958 that a jeweler named Harry Winston decided to break the curse by donating it to the Smithsonian. Since then, no misfortune has been reported.

So is the Hope Diamond truly cursed, or is it just a billion-year-old hunk of material that happens to have been owned by bunch of really unlucky rich people? There’s really no way to know unless you fancy purchasing it from the Smithsonian (for an egregious amount of money) and finding out for yourself.