Beware of misfortune!

Offering no hope

One of the most notorious pieces of jewellery known for its cursed nature is the Hope Diamond. The legend states that a man named Jean-Baptiste Tavernier stole a large blue diamond from the statue of the Hindu goddess Sita during his trip to India. According to a rumour, Tavernier was later torn apart by wild dogs during his trip to Russia. Some of the others who owned the diamond and met with horrible fate are: Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI, who were beheaded, Princess de Lamballe was beaten to death by a mob, Jacques Colet committed suicide, Surbaya was stabbed to death by her royal lover who gifted her the stone, and Simon Montharides died in a carriage crash with her entire family.

Real life ‘Lord of the Rings’

The 12 gm gold ring was likely originally found in 1785 near Silchester, site of the Iron Age Roman town Calleva Atrebatum, and bears the inscription, in Latin, “Senicianus live well in God”, as reported in the international media. But here’s the incredible connection between this ring and J.R.R. Tolkien — the archaeological site, Lydney in Gloucestershire, is commonly known as “Dwarf’s Hill”. According to the curse of the ring, which is written on the tablet found on the site, a man named Silvianus tells Nodens, a deity, that Senicianus stole his ring. The curse is then laid upon anyone bearing the name Senicianus until the thief returns the ring to Nodens’ temple.

Don’t ‘hoard’ this

A collection of day-to-day items including jewellery, plates, etc. is what constitutes the Lydian Hoard. But it’s the brooch and the necklace from this collection that have spelled bad luck for whosoever has possessed them. A part of King Croesus’ treasure, the loot dates back to 547 BC. But the trouble began in 1965. The treasure was found in the tomb of an unknown princess, and promptly looted by just about everyone. Over 150 relics were ransacked. Almost all the looters met with sickness, bad luck and death.

Watch it

Priced at Rs 15 million and known as the Holy Grail of watches, the Henry Graves Supercomplication took five years in the making and is considered the most complex watch assembled by hand. But the watch is cursed, and whosoever owned it was either found dead or was overcome with great tragedy. According to a report, in 1925, American businessman Henry Graves secretly approached Patek Philippe to make him the planet’s “most complicated watch”, with two faces and 24 complications, or extra settings. One face shows the phases of the moon, another the New York sunset and sunrise times. It has an alarm, a stopwatch and perpetual calendar. But just after seven months, Graves’ best friend died. Months later his son George was killed in a car crash, the second of his sons to die this way, an international website reported.

After Graves’ death, the watch founds its way to the 48-year-old Qatari Sheikh Saud bin Mohammed al-Thani, who was considered one of the world’s richest men. He purchased the watch 15 years ago for a whopping $11million. The Qatari Sheikh died at his London home early this month  under “mysterious circumstances” and many are convinced it’s because of the cursed watch.

But that’s not all, the watch was recently bought at an auction in Geneva for a record 23 million Swiss francs. Fingers crossed because if the historical facts are accurate then it’s only a matter of time before the timepiece strikes again.

Annabelle the 'evil' doll

This innocent looking doll was the inspiration behind two of Hollywood’s scariest films last season — Annabelle and The Conjuring. Years ago, a woman was gifted a Raggedy Ann Doll. But her roommate kept finding the doll in different rooms and positions and was also surprised to find notes left by the doll. After consulting a psychic, it was revealed that the doll was possessed by a demon spirit. The actual doll is located in Ed and Lorraine Warren’s Occult Museum in Monroe, Connecticut.