A Napoleon hat, the famous bicorne, black, with a blue, white and red rosette, was sold this Sunday (19) at an auction in France for 1.93 million euros (2.1 million dollars, announced the house of Osénat auctions.
The buyer’s identity and nationality were not disclosed.
The sale attracted “collectors from all over the world” and caused great excitement, the auction house told AFP, which broke its own record from 2014, when it auctioned off another Napoleon hat for 1.88 million euros (2.05 million dollars).
The sale of the emblematic hat began with a price of 500,000 euros (544,000 dollars) and easily surpassed the initial valuation of between 600,000 and 800,000 euros (between 650,000 and 870,000 dollars).
The auction coincides with the premiere on November 22 of a major film production about Napoleon, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Joaquin Phoenix.
“The hat in itself represents the image of the Emperor,” auction director Jean-Pierre Osenat told AFP in October.
According to experts, Napoleon wore almost 120 hats over a period of 15 years, which explains why the pieces appear quite frequently at auctions.
In 2018, another hat that, according to auction house De Baecque et Associés, was worn by Napoleon during the Battle of Waterloo sold for 350,000 euros ($380,000).
The bicorne auctioned this Sunday was produced by Pierre-Quentin-Joseph Baillon, an officer of the emperor since 1806. According to experts, Napoleon added the rosette with the colors of the French flag when he was in the Mediterranean, upon returning from the island of Elba, in March 1, 1815.
The hat remained in Napoleon’s family until the end of the 19th century, before being resold to several collectors.