GENEVA — A diamond brooch that Napoleon lost while the French emperor and his forces were retreating from the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 sold for approximately $4.4 million (more than 3.5 million Swiss francs) at an auction in Geneva hosted by Sotheby’s.
The hammer price was $3,568,949.55, or 2.85 Swiss francs, but the final amount was more after the buyer’s premium was applied.
The brooch, which Napoleon used as a hat ornament, was an heirloom of the Prussian Royal House of Hohenzollern for more than two centuries, Sotheby’s said in the piece’s auction description. It featured an oval diamond weighing more than 13 carats that was encircled by smaller cut diamonds.
Sotheby’s did not reveal the identities of the buyer or seller, but did state that the buyer was a “private collector.”
Napoleon Bonaparte led French forces into battle on June 18, 1815, at Waterloo, located at the time in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands (now a part of Belgium). The emperor lost to British forces led by the Duke of Wellington (Arthur Wellesley) and Prussian troops led by Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher.
The brooch was found among Napoleon’s personal belongings.
“He had to escape in a hurry on horseback in order not to be made a prisoner by the Prussian army,” Sotheby’s said. “As the French retreated, their carriages got held up on the muddy roads near the village of Genappe,” Sotheby’s wrote in its auction listing. “During the retreat, the Prussian army captured and seized at least two carriages carrying the personal belongings of the emperor including medals, weapons, silverware, a hat and a jewelry box containing 22 solitaires and 121 small diamonds.”
Napoleon returned to Paris on June 21 and abdicated the next day. He surrendered on July 15, 1815, and was exiled to St. Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean four months later.
The deposed French emperor died on May 5, 1821, at St. Helena. He was 51.