New Look for Hope Diamond?

This is pretty interesting: to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the donation of the Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian, the museum will be putting the 45.52 carat blue diamond in an entirely new setting. The public gets to vote on and choose the winning design by jeweler Harry Winston, and it will be on exhibit starting May 2010. (You can vote through September 7, 2009.)

For now, the museum has created a page dedicated to the mysterious blue diamond, and you can learn a lot more about the gem, it's myths and it's science by checking it out.

I'm not personally sold on any of the HW designs--I find them a bit dated--but I do love all of the legend surrounding the Hope Diamond.

Want to shop Portero's diamond jewelry? While we don't have any blue diamonds, we are stocked with gorgeous pieces, including some lovely colored diamond options.