A diamond brooch that French emperor Napoleon misplaced whereas fleeing from the Battle of Waterloo within the early nineteenth century offered for greater than 3.5 million Swiss francs — about $4.4 million — at a Geneva public sale on Wednesday, Sotheby’s mentioned.
The brooch, which can be worn as a pendant, options an oval diamond weighing over 13 carats, surrounded by smaller lower diamonds.
“This historic and extremely vital diamond jewel was a part of different private belongings the Emperor had taken with him to Waterloo, together with medals, weapons, silverware, a hat and a jewelry field containing dozens of unfastened diamonds in addition to jewelry,” Sotheby’s mentioned in a information launch.
“In his haste to flee Waterloo, the place his armies had been overwhelmed by the mixed forces of the British and Prussian armies, Napoleon needed to abandon a few of his carriages once they received caught in a muddy highway a couple of miles away from the battlefield — together with the carriage containing these valuable belongings,” it mentioned.
Robert Hradil
The sale worth vastly outstripped the excessive finish of the pre-sale estimate of 200,000 francs. The hammer worth was 2.85 million francs, excluding charges and different prices that had been included within the remaining combination worth.
Sotheby’s didn’t disclose the id of the vendor, and mentioned that the client was a “non-public collector.”
The brooch and some different objects had been supplied to the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III as battle trophies in 1815 three days after the Battle of Waterloo, in keeping with Sotheby’s. It remained amongst heirlooms of the Prussian Royal Home of Hohenzollern for hundreds of years and over the previous couple of years was a part of a distinct non-public assortment.
Amongst dozens of tons on the public sale block was a inexperienced beryl weighing over 132 carats, which Napoleon was mentioned to have worn at his 1804 coronation. The jewel offered for a hammer worth of 838,000 francs, or greater than 17 instances the high-end pre-sale estimate.
One diamond knowledgeable mentioned the sale took on added attract within the wake of the theft of Napoleonic jewels from the Louvre museum in Paris final month. The thieves made off with eight items in broad daylight and dropped one as they made their escape.
“Given the latest Louvre heist and the provenance of arguably essentially the most well-known French determine in historical past, I am not shocked the jewel achieved an impressive 3.5 million francs,” mentioned Tobias Kormind, managing director of on-line jeweler 77 Diamonds. “The brooch arrives at a second of renewed world fascination with Napoleonic jewels, and its story is irresistible.”
