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This wednesday 200 years since the death of Napoleon Bonaparte. For this reason, the Osenat sales house will auction several of the emperor’s hairs in France tomorrow, as well as a handkerchief and a piece of batiste cloth stained with blood that was used for his autopsy.

The objects, which will be sold in Fontainebleau, southeast of Paris, are accompanied by a handwritten note: “This white silk bag contains the hair of His Majesty the Emperor Napoleon I, a handkerchief that belonged to him and a cloth stained with blood (…) They were donated to my father on the part of General de Montholon, on his return from Saint Helena. ” This is indicated by the note signed by the “Second Duke of Bassano”.

Montholon was one of Napoleon’s companions during his exile and attended the autopsy performed the day after his death, May 5, 1821.
, on the island of Saint Helena, which was the prison of the Gran Corso after his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, in 1815.

Along with these relics, the Osenat house, specialized in the sale of objects from the monarchy and the empire of France, will auction a “leg study for Pope Pius VII” made by Napoleon’s official painter, Jacques-Louis David, in forecast of his famous canvas Consecration.

Also on sale will be an elegant sculpture representing a green and gold wooden carriage that belonged to Empress Josephine, decorated with a statue of the Greek goddess Hebe and an eagle with outstretched wings.

Born in Corsica in 1769, Napoleon became the strongman of France ten years after the Revolution of 1789. He dominated much of Europe and faced military coalitions led by Great Britain. The disaster of the invasion of Russia in 1812, added to the defeat in Spain, marked the end of its imperial era. After leaving for the island of Elba, off the Italian coast, he returned to power for the brief period known as The Hundred Days, culminating on June 18, 1815 with the defeat at Waterloo. Napoleon then went to his final destination, the island of Santa Elena, located in the Atlantic 2,000 kilometers from Angola.

