On Wednesday in Paris, Sotheby’s generated €8.7 million ($9.6 million) from what it called “one of the most significant offerings of Napoleonic material ever to come to market.”
The sale sailed past its €6 million ($6.9 million) estimate, with 112 lots spanning imperial furniture, Old Master paintings, and “deeply personal relics that reflect the inner world of [Napoleon Bonaparte],” the auction house said in a statement. The works came from the private collection of prominent French antiques collector Pierre-Jean Chalençon, who is reportedly being forced to sell the Paris mansion he transformed into a shrine to Napoleon in order to pay off a €10 million ($11.6 million) loan.
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(All prices quoted below include buyer’s fees.)
The sell-through rate was 92 percent, and nearly half the lots—including Napoleon’s worn stockings and a copy of the French emperor’s marriage certificate to his first wife, Joséphine—sold above their high estimates. Sotheby’s said there was institutional bidding and buying on several lots, notably from the Musée Napoléonien des Châteaux de Malmaison.
“Echoing Napoleon’s words—‘What a novel my life!’—this collection reads like a vivid historical epic, unfolding across battlefields and boudoirs, ceremonial halls, and intimate chambers, alternating a chronicle of power, politics, and pageantry, to the vulnerabilities, ambitions and contradictions of the man behind the myth,” the house said before the auction.
Among the top lots was a portrait of Napoleon by Jean-Baptiste Mauzaisse, a French painter known for his battle scenes, which sold for €863,600 ($1 million), or 20 times its estimate. The only surviving remnant of Napoleon’s first will, written in 1819 on Saint Helena—where he was exiled in 1815—fetched €482,600 ($558,730), while a gilt wood imperial throne armchair sold for €406,400 ($470,510).
“[Mauzaisse’s] commanding image of Napoleon, after Jacques-Louis David, clearly captured the imagination of collectors,” Louis-Xavier Joseph, head of furniture and decorative arts at Sotheby’s Paris, told ARTnews. “Pursued by four determined bidders, it soared to nearly 20 times its estimate and set a new auction record for the artist—a clear sign of the enduring allure of Napoleon and the power of imagery that defines his legend.”
The iconic general’s stockings were part of a lot that also included a long shirt, a pair of his underwear, and a white silk tie (all worn). The group sold for €133,350 ($154,386).
“This extraordinary ensemble of clothing worn by Napoleon offers a visceral connection to the man behind the legend,” Joseph said. “The intense competition, both in the room and on the phone, reflects not only its impeccable provenance—from his personal tailor’s workshop—but also the emotional resonance of owning something that he actually wore. The exceptional result underscores collectors’ appetite for objects that carry Napoleon’s personal narrative far beyond historical depiction.”
One of the sale’s disappointments was Napoleon’s bicorne hat, touted as a highlight before the auction, which sold for €355,600 ($416,000)—well under its €600,000 ($700,000) low estimate. Questions have been raised about its provenance; French newspaper Le Figaro reported Thursday that “the best market experts refused to acknowledge [the hat] as a good one—and the great connoisseurs of the Empire knew that it came from a dealer at the Louvre des Antiquaires [a complex of antique, art, and jewelry shops in Paris] who had produced no fewer than 20 fakes, aging the felt of the hats… adding cockades.”
The highest price ever paid at auction for 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 first time Sotheby’s has auctioned Napoleon’s possessions. In 1823, just two years after his death, the house sold his library from Saint Helena in London. When Napoleon was exiled there, he took 112 volumes (a nice symmetry with the current sale’s 112 lots), along with a pastry chef and his servants, to the volcanic island between Africa and South America.
“Some 200 years ago, Sotheby’s had the honour of auctioning Napoleon’s personal library—an extraordinary success which was echoed this evening when we unveiled one of the most significant collections of his belongings ever assembled, a powerful reminder of how Napoleon continues to captivate the world with his legacy and myth,” the house said in a statement. ”Pierre-Jean Chalençon’s remarkable collection drew global attention, far surpassing estimates and setting new benchmarks for this category.”
The top price ever paid for one of Napoleon’s belongings is €4.66 million ($5.4 million), when Drouot auctioneers in Paris sold his personal sabre last month. Chalençon—described by The Times of London as “France’s most famous antiques collector”—told the New York Post before the sale that he hoped Tesla billionaire Elon Musk would be the ideal buyer for the collection.
“[The lots] are like my babies,” he said. “And I wish Elon Musk, the new Napoleon, to buy everything, to keep my babies together.” It’s not known if Musk bid on any of the work
In 2015, Chalençon—who has described himself as “Napoleon’s press officer”—purchased the Palais Vivienne for €6 million ($6.9 million) and filled it with his Napoleonic memorabilia, which reportedly includes more than 1,000 items, among them the statesman’s 5.33-carat ruby coronation ring.
In March, The Times reported that Chalençon was struggling to repay a €10 million loan from Swiss Life Banque Privée that had financed his acquisitions. Chalençon, however, told Le Parisien, “I am not riddled with debts. I am doing well.”
In a dramatic turn at the close of the sale, Le Figaro reported that an unannounced group of six individuals carrying folders with Ministry of Public Finance letterhead took notes on the prices of the lots and “visibly requested the seizure of the proceeds.”