‘A Romantic career ends in poverty’, wrote The Statesman, Calcutta of 12 January 1921, which had reported extensively on the Jacob Diamond trial. It was almost impossible to write about Jacob’s life with sobriety, the obituary said, ‘so amazing was his history and so extraordinary the stories which had grown up around him’ that people might believe or reject the legends about Jacob as a wonder worker but of his eminence as an art dealer there was no question.
If we were to believe all contemporary news reports about him, he was described mostly as a Persian living in Shimla, or an Armenian, or a Greek, a Pole, an Italian, a Turk, a Gypsy, and the speculations carried on. Jacob neither denied nor confirmed any of them. In fact, at various points of time he varied his life-story adding newer elements, keeping up the mystery. In appearance, he was a combination of any or all of these.
By religion he was referred to as Jewish, though others swore he was a Christian or a devout…
