On Wednesday in Paris, Sotheby’s generated €8.7 million ($9.6 million) from what it referred to as “probably the most vital choices of Napoleonic materials ever to come back to market.”
The sale sailed previous its €6 million ($6.9 million) estimate, with 112 heaps spanning imperial furnishings, Outdated Grasp work, and “deeply private relics that replicate the interior world of [Napoleon Bonaparte],” the public sale home mentioned in an announcement. The works got here from the non-public assortment of outstanding French antiques collector Pierre-Jean Chalençon, who’s reportedly being pressured to promote the Paris mansion he reworked right into a shrine to Napoleon with a view to repay a €10 million ($11.6 million) mortgage.
(All costs quoted beneath embody purchaser’s charges.)
The sell-through price was 92 p.c, and practically half the heaps—together with Napoleon’s worn stockings and a replica of the French emperor’s marriage certificates to his first spouse, Joséphine—offered above their excessive estimates. Sotheby’s mentioned there was institutional bidding and shopping for on a number of heaps, notably from the Musée Napoléonien des Châteaux de Malmaison.
“Echoing Napoleon’s phrases—‘What a novel my life!’—this assortment reads like a vivid historic epic, unfolding throughout battlefields and boudoirs, ceremonial halls, and intimate chambers, alternating a chronicle of energy, politics, and pageantry, to the vulnerabilities, ambitions and contradictions of the person behind the parable,” the home mentioned earlier than the public sale.
Among the many high heaps was a portrait of Napoleon by Jean-Baptiste Mauzaisse, a French painter identified for his battle scenes, which offered for €863,600 ($1 million), or 20 occasions its estimate. The one surviving remnant of Napoleon’s first will, written in 1819 on Saint Helena—the place he was exiled in 1815—fetched €482,600 ($558,730), whereas a gilt wooden imperial throne armchair offered for €406,400 ($470,510).
“[Mauzaisse’s] commanding picture of Napoleon, after Jacques-Louis David, clearly captured the creativeness of collectors,” Louis-Xavier Joseph, head of furnishings and ornamental arts at Sotheby’s Paris, informed ARTnews. “Pursued by 4 decided bidders, it soared to just about 20 occasions its estimate and set a brand new public sale document for the artist—a transparent signal of the enduring attract of Napoleon and the ability of images that defines his legend.”
The long-lasting basic’s stockings have been a part of rather a lot that additionally included an extended shirt, a pair of his underwear, and a white silk tie (all worn). The group offered for €133,350 ($154,386).
“This extraordinary ensemble of clothes worn by Napoleon affords a visceral connection to the person behind the legend,” Joseph mentioned. “The extreme competitors, each within the room and on the cellphone, displays not solely its impeccable provenance—from his private tailor’s workshop—but additionally the emotional resonance of proudly owning one thing that he really wore. The distinctive end result underscores collectors’ urge for food for objects that carry Napoleon’s private narrative far past historic depiction.”
One of many sale’s disappointments was Napoleon’s bicorne hat, touted as a spotlight earlier than the public sale, which offered for €355,600 ($416,000)—nicely underneath its €600,000 ($700,000) low estimate. Questions have been raised about its provenance; French newspaper Le Figaro reported Thursday that “one of the best market consultants refused to acknowledge [the hat] as a very good one—and the good connoisseurs of the Empire knew that it got here from a supplier on the Louvre des Antiquaires [a complex of antique, art, and jewelry shops in Paris] who had produced no fewer than 20 fakes, getting older the felt of the hats… including cockades.”
The very best worth ever paid at public sale for certainly one of Napoleon’s hats is €1.9 million ($2.2 million), set at Osenat & Binoche Giquello in Fontainebleau in 2023.
This was not the primary time Sotheby’s has auctioned Napoleon’s possessions. In 1823, simply two years after his loss of life, the home offered his library from Saint Helena in London. When Napoleon was exiled there, he took 112 volumes (a pleasant symmetry with the present sale’s 112 heaps), together with a pastry chef and his servants, to the volcanic island between Africa and South America.
“Some 200 years in the past, Sotheby’s had the honour of auctioning Napoleon’s private library—a unprecedented success which was echoed this night after we unveiled probably the most vital collections of his belongings ever assembled, a robust reminder of how Napoleon continues to captivate the world together with his legacy and delusion,” the home mentioned in an announcement. ”Pierre-Jean Chalençon’s exceptional assortment drew world consideration, far surpassing estimates and setting new benchmarks for this class.”
The highest worth ever paid for certainly one of Napoleon’s belongings is €4.66 million ($5.4 million), when Drouot auctioneers in Paris offered his private sabre final month. Chalençon—described by The Occasions of London as “France’s most well-known antiques collector”—informed the New York Submit earlier than the sale that he hoped Tesla billionaire Elon Musk can be the best purchaser for the gathering.
“[The lots] are like my infants,” he mentioned. “And I want Elon Musk, the brand new Napoleon, to purchase every little thing, to maintain my infants collectively.” It’s not identified if Musk bid on any of the work
In 2015, Chalençon—who has described himself as “Napoleon’s press officer”—bought the Palais Vivienne for €6 million ($6.9 million) and stuffed it together with his Napoleonic memorabilia, which reportedly consists of greater than 1,000 gadgets, amongst them the statesman’s 5.33-carat ruby coronation ring.
In March, The Occasions reported that Chalençon was struggling to repay a €10 million mortgage from Swiss Life Banque Privée that had financed his acquisitions. Chalençon, nonetheless, informed Le Parisien, “I’m not riddled with money owed. I’m doing nicely.”
In a dramatic flip on the shut of the sale, Le Figaro reported that an unannounced group of six people carrying folders with Ministry of Public Finance letterhead took notes on the costs of the heaps and “visibly requested the seizure of the proceeds.”
