PARIS: A black beaver felt hat belonging to Napoleon Bonaparte sold at auction in France for €1.93 million (US$2.1 million) on Sunday, reported German news agency (dpa).
The Osenat auction house in Fontainebleau near Paris said this was a world record for a hat worn by Napoleon, who ruled the French empire in the 19th century).
The hat had been valued by the auction house at between €600,000 and €800,000.
A strand of the emperor’s hair and a handkerchief were among the other items put on sale by a collector. Other items on offer included gloves and a shirt that Napoleon is said to have worn while exiled on the island of Saint Helena.
In France, there is still a certain admiration for the emperor, with some paying tribute to him as a reformer and founder of the modern, centralised state. He was also an authoritarian ruler who restored slavery in the colonies in 1802.
Born in Corsica, he died in exile on the Atlantic island of Saint Helena in 1821 at the age of 51. – BERNAMA-dpa
