Q 01/05

While a decoy sailed under guard by steamer, how did the 3,106-carat Cullinan rough reach London in 1905?

A) By registered post

B) In a warship's safe

C) In a diplomat's bag

D) Sewn into a coat

Answer · why

A) By registered post

By registered post, in a plain box: the parcel locked in the steamer captain's safe and watched by detectives for the whole voyage held a fake, there ...

Q 02/05

Harry Winston sent the Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian in 1958 wrapped in plain brown paper; how much was the postage?

A) $2.44

B) $24.40

C) $244

D) $2,440

Answer · why

A) $2.44

$2.44 was the postage; the rest of the $145.29 bill was insurance for $1,000,000, and the brown-paper package itself is now kept in the Smithsonian's ...

Q 03/05

Which French queen's name was wrecked by the 1785 Affair of the Diamond Necklace, a con she never took part in?

A) Catherine de' Medici

B) Marie Antoinette

C) Anne of Brittany

D) Marie de' Medici

Answer · why

B) Marie Antoinette

Marie Antoinette had turned the necklace down; the adventuress Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Rémy forged her signature to get it from the Crown jewellers, an...

Q 04/05

Which 1985 Madonna video restages Marilyn Monroe's pink-gown number from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, suitors and all?

A) Like a Virgin

B) Papa Don't Preach

C) Material Girl

D) Express Yourself

Answer · why

C) Material Girl

Material Girl restages 'Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend' but undercuts the lyric: in the video's story the star shrugs off rich admirers and falls f...

Q 05/05

Blood Diamond (2006), with DiCaprio as a Rhodesian smuggler, is set in which country's 1999 civil war?

A) Liberia

B) Angola

C) Sierra Leone

D) Ivory Coast

Answer · why

C) Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone's rebels really did pay for their war with gems dug by forced labour, and the outcry led in 2003 to a global scheme certifying rough diam...