Marylin Monroe apparently knew what she was singing about. Diamonds are a girl’s best
friend. Well, not all diamonds are friends. That’s where the Orlov diamond comes in
– sparkling, capricious, notorious for ruining his owners’ lives and… Yes, it is black!
And, its past and origin are as dark as its color.
Legend has it that the Orlov diamond is “The Eye of Brahma” – a 195-carat gemstone
that was inlaid in a Hindu statue near Pondicherry, India. In 1747, it was stolen under mysterious
circumstances. Several hours before its disappearance, a monk was seen in the shrine who was later
believed to be a thief. Desecration of the shrine is forbidden, and it’s believed that
perhaps the thief - and all the future owners - of the stolen diamond were cursed.
Do you take superstitions with a grain of salt? Coincidence or not, what happened next
looks like that could be the case!
Neither the monk nor other possible thieves were ever found, and any trace of the diamond
was lost for many years. Much later, in the 18th century, it popped up in Great Britain.
Other sources say that Princess Nadezhda Orlova delivered the black diamond from India to
Russia – and that’s how it got its name. The insidious stone brought nothing but suffering
to the princess, and eventually, she just couldn’t bear it any longer. Society was
shocked by the tragic news: Princess Orlova had ended her own life. There was talk of
unrequited love, but her family would deny this. It was then that the gemstone became
notorious.
Princess Orlova’s story is a bit of a mystery. For a long time she was believed to be a fictional
character. Historians couldn’t find any references to her biography. It wasn’t until
a hundred years later that they found out that Princess Orlova descended from the Romanov
family. She got married to Nikolay Orlov and moved to Europe where she lived to be 90 years
old. Could she be the same princess who supposedly ended her life because of unrequited love?
Perhaps her “tragedy” was meant to be a distraction for her quiet emigration? Maybe
it was a different princess altogether? We’ll never know for sure…
There are records of two more Russian princesses who owned the black diamond and shared the
same terrible fate: Leonila Galitsine-Bariatinsky and Maria Leshchinskaya. But the mysterious
hypnotic beauty of the gemstone kept attracting new owners.
In 1932 the Black Orlov was bought from an unknown source by J.W Paris – a well-known
New York gem dealer. Not long after he sold the diamond to Charles S. Winston, Paris ended
up taking his life as well. Rumor had it that Paris had been depressed about his business
and left 2 letters – to his wife and a fellow jeweler. Neither of these letters were ever
published though, so the true reason for his death remains unknown. Could it have been
the cursed diamond?
The next owner, Charles S. Winston, was shaken by Paris’s tragic demise and tried to break
the diamond’s alleged curse by cutting it. He asked an Austrian jeweler to cut the diamond
into 3 pieces. The biggest crystal has a foursquare shape and weighs 67.5 carats. This is the
Black Orlov as we know it now. Nothing is known about the other two parts.
The present owner of the infamous stone, a diamond dealer from Pennsylvania named Dennis
Petimezas, bought it in 2006. He said that he'd seen the gemstone 30 years before in
California where he'd been studying. It was the first time he saw a black diamond and
he was captivated by it. "I always read anything about it when its
name cropped up and about a year and a half ago, I was visiting a colleague and, lo and
behold, it was on his desk." Petimezas persuaded his friend to get in touch with the owner.
After six months of negotiations, he agreed to sell the notorious diamond.
Petimezas had never seriously believed in the diamond's dark powers. He studied its
history and found that there weren’t any troubles linked to it for about half a century.
That's why he wasn't worried about himself. In his opinion, the curse, if it even ever
existed, had been broken. The Black Orlov is now part of a 108-diamond
brooch suspended from a 124-diamond necklace and is sometimes on display at international
gemstone exhibitions. Who knows, maybe the Indian curse really is
over? Black diamonds are highly valued now. Hollywood
movie stars and big names wear them on the red carpet. But few of them know anything
about the gemstone’s mysterious origin. And do you?
Well, to begin with, all diamonds are between 1 billion and 3.5 billion years old. Imagine
wearing something THAT ancient on your finger or neck!
It takes that long for diamonds to form at a depth of about a hundred miles (160 km).
Imagine very high temperatures (1,652 – 2,370°F (900 – 1,300°С)) and extremely high pressure
existing for millions of years deep inside the Earth’s mantle. These are the conditions
under which diamonds are formed. Diamonds are brought to the surface as a result of
volcanic explosions with the flow of magma. Nowadays, they're mined from explosive volcanic
rocks called kimberlites. Due to this process, diamonds have a unique
crystal structure that makes them the hardest natural material on the planet.
Black diamonds, however, have quite a different structure. They're also called “carbonado”
because they look so much like porous charcoal. While pure diamonds are big solid crystals,
carbonados have a polycrystal structure. They’re made of many tiny crystals linked with each
other. That’s why it’s so difficult to facet them: they can easily be ruined, and
in the process, the initial weight can become 90% less. It takes a huge amount of time,
skills, and patience to facet a black diamond. But it’s well worth the effort once you
just look at one of these magnificent dark stones!
Pure diamonds, as well as those of any other color but black, are found all around the
Earth. And here comes the most intriguing part of the black diamond’s origin: not
a single black diamond has been discovered in the world's mining fields.
Black diamonds come from only 3 places and no other pure or colored diamonds are found
there: The Central African Republic, Brazil and The Kozelski Volcano in Kamchatka, Russia.
Because of this fact, as well as their different structure, scientists think that black diamonds
were brought to Earth from space as a result of a collision with a huge asteroid!
In 2006, scientists Jozsef Garai and Stephen Haggerty of Florida International University
published an article where they claimed that black diamonds have an extraterrestrial origin.
Carbonados have a combination of titan and nitrogen that only occurs in meteorites – nowhere
else! Apart from that, there's some hydrogen in them which is even more evidence of their
formation in space. So imagine: when they first landed on Earth, black diamonds were
the size of asteroids: half a mile (~1 km) or more in diameter!
But what makes them black, by the way? Carbonados have graphite and hematite in their crystals.
These substances absorb light, while pure diamonds let it through. It's believed that
the black hue also appeared due to radiation. But no worries! That was only during its formation
millions of years ago. Wearing diamonds is safe and giving them as presents is even better!
Well, the ones that aren’t cursed, that is…
If you’re in the market for a black diamond (and you’re not afraid of superstitions!),
then here’s how to choose a good one: Regular pure diamonds are evaluated with the
4 Cs: carat, color, clarity, and cut. Carbonados aren’t transparent like pure diamonds, so
the “C” for “clarity” is absent from their evaluation. Maybe replace it with “C”
for “cursed” or not? The quality of the gemstone depends on the
initial substance and the jeweler’s skills. The cheapest carbonados are produced in India.
The jewelry is made of brown, low-quality diamonds with a lot of pores inside. Black
gemstones of the highest quality are produced only in 3 countries – Belgium, Israel and
Italy. A true high quality carbonado has an even
tone without blends. If you look at it through a magnifying glass, you should make sure that
its edges don’t change color when exposed to the light. Artificial or low-quality carbonados
can change in color. And that’s all you need to know! Good luck
in your black diamond shopping…if you dare!
Do you know any other gemstones that brought nothing but troubles to their owners? Let
me know down in the comments! If you learned something new today, then give this video
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