A historic black hat once worn by Napoleon Bonaparte, adorned with a circular badge featuring the French flag, has been sold for a record-breaking sum at a public auction.
The sale took place on Sunday, drawing significant attention from collectors worldwide.
The hat fetched 1.932 million euros (approximately 2.11 million US dollars), including fees, surpassing the estimates set by the auction house, Osenat.
This sale broke the previous record set in 2014 when another of Napoleon’s hats was sold for 1.884 million euros at an auction organized by Osenat in Fontainebleau, near Paris.
The previous hat was bought by a South Korean businessman and was in excellent condition, coming from the private collection of the Monaco royal family.
Osenat stated that the auction, held this Sunday, attracted collectors from all around the world. The hat had been previously displayed to the public and was initially estimated to fetch between 600,000 and 800,000 euros.
The hat, reportedly worn by Napoleon (1769-1821) “around the middle of his imperial era,” according to Belgian author Yves Morvan, who discussed Bonaparte’s hats in a 2007 book, started bidding at 500,000 euros but sold for nearly four times that amount.
Over about 15 years, Napoleon wore around 120 hats, some of which have appeared in various auctions.
In 2018, another hat believed to have been worn by Napoleon during the famous Battle of Waterloo was sold for 350,000 euros (around 367,870 US dollars), including costs, at an auction in Lyon, central-eastern France.
The hat sold on Sunday belonged to the collection of Jean Louis Nouazé, who passed away in 2022.
This particular hat was crafted by Pierre-Quintin-Joseph Bayon, who began working for the empire in 1806.
Experts believe that Napoleon added the circular badge to his hat while returning from the island of Elba in the Mediterranean Sea on March 1, 1815.
