
Forty-five carats of deep blue diamond, cut from the French Blue that was stolen from the crown jewels in 1792. Every owner since has been credited with a ruinous end, a story largely invented by dealers and newspapers to move the stone. Harry Winston posted it to the Smithsonian in 1958 in a plain brown paper parcel for two dollars and forty-four cents postage, and it has sat on public display ever since. Free to walk in and look at the most famous gem on earth.
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
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