Napoleon’s Hat Sells For $2.4 Million

The two-cornered hat famously worn by French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was sold at an auction on Sunday for 1.9 million euros (roughly $2.4 million). The buyer was a South Korean company, called Harim.

Bonaparte was known for wearing the hat sideways, with the two points aligned at his shoulders. He did so as a point—he wanted everyone on the battlefield to know his silhouette. During his reign, Bonaparte went through about 120 of these hats, and only about 20 items have been confirmed as actually having been worn or used by the former leader. In this case, Bonaparte did not wear the hat in question, but did gift it to his chief veterinarian.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv3d51s0PXg

Most Bonaparte objects are in museums, but the hat like several other items that were up for sale at the Osenat auction house in Fontainebleau, were part of the Prince of Monaco’s private Napoleon Bonaparte collection and were sold to pay for palace renovation.

Five years ago, one of Bonaparte’s sabers was sold at the same auction house for nearly $7 million.

At this sale, nearly a thousand items once belonging to Bonaparte (and part of the Monaco family’s collection) were for sale—including weapons such as a bejeweled hunting rifle, portraits, letters, cologne bottles, a knife used in a failed assassination attempt, a pair of the emperor’s stockings, baby clothes his son once wore and a gilded crib. All told, the auction brought in over $10 million revenue even after taxes.