Above the grave of Queen Esther once hung a vessel which, according to legend, contained the golden crown that King Ahasuerus placed on Esther’s head when he made her queen in place of Vashti. About a hundred years ago, the crown was stolen, and later discovered in the Louvre Museum in Paris. Jewish communities in Iran and in France raised an outcry for the return of the stolen property.
The museum quickly removed it from display, and to this day denies that it is in their possession. The Jews of Hamedan suspected the tomb’s caretaker of stealing and selling the crown. They said that the curse of the rabbi of Hamedan lay upon his family, for each of his children died prematurely before the age of twenty, as punishment for the theft.
