2024-07-06 14:42:00
Two of Napoleon I’s pistols, estimated at between 1.2 and 1.5 million euros, were to be auctioned this Sunday but the Ministry of Culture published this Saturday, July 6, an order that prevented export them.
“National Treasure”. The Ministry of Culture published this Saturday July 6 in the Official Journal an order that prohibits the sale of a double gun of Napoleon I and with which he attempted suicide, which must be put on sale on This Sunday.
They have “decided to join the national collection with the so-called saber of kings, which was given at the same time by the recently deposed Emperor to General Caulaincourt”, explains the ministry in your order.
“This set of properties is of great interest for the national heritage from the point of view of history and art and must be considered a national treasure,” said the Advisory Council on National Treasures, in a statement. published in JO, which supports the rejection. export certificate.
This decision came on the eve of the auction in Fontainebleau (Seine-et-Marne) by the auction houses Osenat and Rossini of these two guns that belonged to Napoleon I until his first release.
Sold in their precious wooden box (burr walnut, ebony, green velvet decorated with gold …) and with their accessories, “these two pistols, made of gold and silver , where the profile of the “Emperor is represented, is estimated at 1.2 to 1.5 million euros”, specified Jean-Pierre Osenat, expert.
Suicide attempt at Fontainebleau in 1814
Napoleon I “specially ordered them from the gunsmith Louis Marin Gosset, working in the Versailles factory”, he explained.
They were linked to the suicide attempt at Fontainebleau on the night of April 12 to 13, 1814, during its first retreat.
“After the defeat of the French campaign, he was completely depressed and wanted to kill himself with these weapons but his great Caulaincourt (Armand Augustin Louis, Marquis de Caulaincourt, Duke of Vicenza, 1773-1827) removed the powder. Napoleon then he drank poison but he vomited and did not die,” said Jean-Pierre Osenat.
“The emperor gave two pistols with a sword to Caulaincourt in memory of his loyalty in those dark days since then they have been in his family and he decided to share with them,” the expert said.
“Regardless of its value and age, cultural heritage that is understood as national heritage can leave France for a while, with a mandatory return,” the website of the Ministry of Culture explains.
Refusal of the export certificate opens a period of 30 months during which the French administration can make a purchase offer to the owner of the project, who has the right to refuse. If the State abandons the property, the work may leave the territory of the country.
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