Editor’s Note
A brooch once owned by Napoleon Bonaparte has sold at auction for $4.4 million, far surpassing its pre-sale estimate. The piece, which can also be worn as a pendant, was purchased by a private collector at Sotheby’s Geneva.
Sotheby’s Geneva has sold a brooch that purportedly once belonged to Napoleon Bonaparte. The winning bid, made by a private collector, was $4.4 million, far exceeding the roughly $250,000 estimate. The brooch, which features a 13.2-carat Old Mine Cut diamond surrounded by smaller diamonds, can also be worn as a pendant.
The brooch’s storied legacy begins in 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo, where Napoleon was famously defeated at the hands of a European coalition, including the British, Prussian, and Dutch, and led by the Duke of Wellington. Sotheby’s said that this particular diamond was taken from the fleeing French emperor’s belongings by Prussian field marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher. It then remained in the Prussian Royal House of Hohenzollern for more than two centuries, though the seller in this auction is unknown.
The “Royal & Noble Jewels” auction also featured another item once owned by Napoleon: a 132-carat green beryl worn during his 1804 coronation. It sold for $32,000. Other significant pieces include a diamond tiara once belonging to the Duchess of Portland and a Cartier diamond and pearl brooch worn by a German princess to the coronation of Elizabeth II. Another blockbuster will soon be brought to the block: “The Glowing Rose,” a very rare 10.08-carat fancy vivid pink diamond, which has an estimate of $20 million.
Of course, this all happens at a time when royal jewels are of particular worldwide interest. During last month’s robbery at the Louvre in Paris, eight royal jewels owned by the French royal family, including earrings given by Napoleon to his second wife, Marie Louise, were stolen.