The Black Orlov Diamond Myth

The Black Orlov Diamond Myth

In the early 1800s in India, the Black Orlov diamond was discovered . It originally weighed 195 carats. It was allegedly cursed - as were all its future owners - when a monk removed the gem from the eye of the idol of Brahma at a shrine near Pondicherry, India.

At least three former owners have apparently killed themselves. In 1932, J W Paris, the diamond dealer who imported the stone to the United States, jumped to his death from one of New York's tallest buildings shortly after concluding the sale of the jewel. And 15 years later, a pair of Russian princesses, Nadia Vyegin-Orlov and Leonila Galitsine-Bariatinsky, leapt to their deaths within a month of each other.

In an attempt to escape the curse, the diamond was re-cut into three separate stones, which have since been in the possession of a succession of private owners.

The 67.5 carat stone known today as the Black Orlov is set in a 108-diamond brooch suspended from a 124-diamond necklace. When the diamonds exhibition closes in February, the necklace will travel to California where a star, whom Petimezas refused to name, will wear it to the 2006 Oscars ceremony.

Black diamonds are very rare and get their colour from the presence of tiny mineral traces, mainly the iron-oxide minerals magnetite and haematite. Only one in 10,000 diamonds mined is coloured.

This diamond is currently owned by Dennis Petimezas, a diamond dealer from Pennsylvania, who bought it for an unspecified sum last year.