The Koh-i-Noor's journey to London – from its probable birthplace in a 13th-century south Indian riverbed – involves the murders of multiple monarchs; torture; and the overthrow and exile of a ten-year-old king.
And once, was even the subject of a legal wrangle that saw Pakistani lawyers threaten the late Queen Elizabeth with a day in court if the piece, part of the Crown Jewels, wasn't returned.
Renewed focus fell on the diamond, and another from South Africa, after the death of the Queen aged 96 last month.
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The Kohinoor – also known as the Koh-i-noor – started trending almost as soon as news of the Queen’s death broke as social media users demanded the return of the gem.
But in 2015, a lawyer in Pakistan took it one step further and filed a court petition seeking the return of the precious stone.
Lawyer Jawaid Iqbal Jafree filed the petition at the high court in Lahore in December that year, naming Queen Elizabeth II as a respondent.
The application asked that Britain hand back the diamond, now on display in the Tower of London.
Jafree told Reuters at the time that the diamond belonged to Pakistan’s Punjab province and was “forcibly and under duress” taken by the British from the local ruler at the time. “Now it should be returned to Pakistan,” he said.
In his petition, Jafree said: “The Queen will rise in the highest public interest with facilitating honest disposal and transferring the possession of the Koh-i-noor diamond which was illegally taken.
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"Koh-i-noor was not legitimately acquired. Grabbing and snatching it was a private, illegal act which is justified by no law.”
The diamond was brought to England after the army of the East India Company took over the Sikh state of the Punjab in 1846.
It was last seen in public in 2002 when it was perched on top of the Queen Mother's coffin.
In the last 50 years, Jafree has reportedly written more than 780 letters to the Queen and various Pakistani officials asking for the diamond’s return, receiving one response from the Uk when the Queen's secretary sent a letter back.
In September, a petition to send it back was started by an Indian businessman and aimed to gather one million signatures.
In 2013, the then prime minister David Cameron refuted the idea that the UK should return the diamond back to apologise for colonising India.
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