Two pistols once owned by French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, with which he had intended to kill himself, have been sold at auction for €1.69 million (£1.4 million).
Crafted by Parisian gunmaker Louis-Marin Gosset, the pistols had been expected to fetch between €1.2 million and €1.5 million.
They were sold at the Osenat auction house on Sunday, near the Fontainebleau palace where Napoleon attempted suicide following his abdication in 1814.
The sale follows the French culture ministry’s recent classification of the pistols as national treasures, preventing their export. This designation gives the French government 30 months to make a purchase offer to the unnamed new owner and restricts the pistols’ removal from France to temporary periods only.
The guns, inlaid with gold and silver, feature an engraved profile image of Napoleon. On the night of April 12, 1814, after his army’s defeat and subsequent loss of power, Napoleon intended to use the pistols to end his life. However, his grand squire, Armand de Caulaincourt, had removed the powder, and Napoleon instead ingested poison but survived.
Napoleon later gifted the pistols to Caulaincourt, who passed them down to his descendants. The auction also included the pistols’ original box and various accessories, such as a powder horn and tamping rods.
Auctioneer Jean-Pierre Osenat remarked that the sale represented “the image of Napoleon at his lowest point.”
Napoleon memorabilia is highly sought after; one of his iconic tricorne hats sold for €1.9 million in November.
After his exile to Elba, Napoleon returned to power in 1815 but was ultimately defeated at the Battle of Waterloo. He died in 1821 following a second exile to the island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic.