Napoleon Bonaparte’s relics on display in Paris: Divorce papers, iconic hat, and more up for grabs in landmark auction

French statesman and general Napoleon’s life and lies are on display in Paris in the form of over 100 relics that belonged to him. His battered military hat, a sleeve from his red velvet coat, and even the divorce papers that ended his romance with empress Josephine, who haunted him till the very end.

According to AP, the relics of one of the most controversial, yet undeniable European leaders are on display in Paris ahead of an iconic event which historians and experts are claiming to be one of the biggest Napoleon auctions ever staged.

“These are not just museum pieces. They’re fragments of a life that changed history. You can literally hold a piece of Napoleon’s world in your hand,” Louis-Xavier Joseph, Sotheby’s head of European furniture, who helped assemble the trove, was quoted as telling AP.

“Put a bicorne on a table, and people think of Napoleon immediately. It’s like the laurel crown of Julius Caesar. Napoleon was a great lover; his letters that he wrote are full of fervor, of love, of passion. It was also a man who paid attention to his image. Maybe one of the first to be so careful of his image, both public and private,” Joseph continued.

“The auction — aiming to make in excess of 7 million euros ($7.5 million) — is a biography in objects. The centerpiece is Napoleon’s iconic bicorne hat, the black felt chapeau he wore in battle — with wings parallel to his shoulders — so soldiers and enemies could spot him instantly through the gunpowder haze. For all the pageantry — throne, swords, the Grand Eagle of the Legion of Honor — the auction’s true power comes from its intimacy. It includes the handwritten codicil of Napoleon’s final will, composed in paranoia and illness on Saint Helena,” the AP report on the Napoleon auction reads.