Napoleon Bonaparte’s hat, a famous black bicorn with a red, white and blue cockade, was sold at auction in Paris on Sunday for 1.932 million euros (including tax), after bids far exceeded the estimates of France’s Osenat auction house, France reported. Presse.

A hat worn by Napoleon Bonaparte was sold for 2 million eurosPhoto: Christophe Ena / AP / Profimedia

The identity or nationality of the buyer has not been disclosed, Agerpres reports.

The sale attracted collectors from around the world and caused quite a stir, the auction house told AFP, breaking its own record; in 2014, he sold a Napoleon I hat for €1.884 million.

The hat sold on Sunday had previously been on public display and was estimated at between €600,000 and €800,000.

The auction took place a few days before the release of the big-budget Napoleon biopic starring Joaquin Phoenix.

“The hat alone embodies the image of the emperor,” auctioneer Jean-Pierre Aussin told AFP in October.

It is said that Napoleon wore about 120 such hats

This hat was worn by Napoleon (1769-1821) “about halfway through the Empire,” according to Belgian writer Yves Moerman, who compiled a 2007 catalog of the French emperor’s hats.

Napoleon is said to have worn around 120 of these hats over a period of around 15 years, which means that some of them can be seen at auction from time to time.

The previous record was €1.884 million in 2014, also sold by Osenat in Fontainebleau. The hat, purchased by a South Korean businessman, came from the collection of the princely family of Monaco.

In 2018, a hat believed by auction house De Baecque et Associes to have been worn during the Battle of Waterloo sold for €350,000 in Lyon.

This time, the hat for sale was part of the collection of Jean-Louis Noisier, the founder of the French cleaning, hygiene and related services group GSF, who died in 2022.

The bicorn was made by Pierre-Cantin-Joseph Bayon, the emperor’s furrier since 1806. According to experts, Napoleon added the cockade while in the Mediterranean, returning from the island of Elba on March 1, 1815.

The hat remained in the family until the end of the 19th century, when it was sold to various collectors. It was exhibited at the Musee de l’Emperi in the commune of Salon-de-Provence (Bouches-du-Rhône department) between 1967 and 2002.