On Wednesday in Paris, Sotheby’s generated €8.7 million ($9.6 million) from what it called “one of the most significant offerings of Napoleonic material ever to come to market.”
The sale sailed past its €6 million ($6.9 million) estimate, with 112 lots spanning imperial furniture, Old Master paintings, and “deeply personal relics that reflect the inner world of [Napoleon Bonaparte],” the auction house said in a statement. The works came from the private collection of prominent French antiques collector Pierre-Jean Chalençon, who is reportedly being forced to sell the Paris mansion he transformed into a shrine to Napoleon in order to pay off a €10 million ($11.6 million) loan.
(All prices quoted below include buyer’s fees.)
The sell-through rate was 92 percent, and nearly half the lots—including Napoleon’s worn stockings and a copy of the French emperor’s marriage certificate to his first wife, Joséphine—sold above their high estimates. Sotheby’s said there was institutional bidding and buying on several lots, notably from the Musée Napoléonien des Châteaux de Malmaison.
“Echoing Napoleon’s words—‘What a novel my life!’—this collection reads like a vivid historical epic, unfolding across battlefields and boudoirs, ceremonial halls, and intimate chambers, alternating a chronicle of power, politics, and pageantry, to the vulnerabilities, ambitions and contradictions of the man behind the myth,” the house said before the auction.
Among the top lots was a portrait of Napoleon by Jean-Baptiste Mauzaisse, a French painter known for his battle scenes, which sold for €863,600 ($1 million), or 20 times its estimate. The only surviving remnant of Napoleon’s first will, written in 1819 on Saint Helena—where he was exiled in 1815—fetched €482,600 ($558,730), while a gilt wood imperial throne armchair sold for €406,400 ($470,510).
“[Mauzaisse’s] commanding image of Napoleon, after Jacques-Louis David, clearly captured the imagination of collectors,” Louis-Xavier Joseph, head of furniture and decorative arts at Sotheby’s Paris, told ARTnews. “Pursued by four determined bidders, it soared to nearly 20 times its estimate and set a new auction record for the artist—a clear sign of the enduring allure of Napoleon and the power of imagery that defines his legend.”
The iconic general’s stockings were part of a lot that also included a long shirt, a pair of his underwear, and a white silk tie (all worn). The group sold for €133,350 ($154,386).
“This extraordinary ensemble of clothing worn by Napoleon offers a visceral connection to the man behind the legend,” Joseph said. “The intense competition, both in the room and on the phone, reflects not only its impeccable provenance—from his personal tailor’s workshop—but also the emotional resonance of owning something that he actually wore. The exceptional result underscores collectors’ appetite for objects that carry Napoleon’s personal narrative far beyond historical depiction.”
One of the sale’s disappointments was Napoleon’s bicorne hat, touted as a highlight before the auction, which sold for €355,600 ($416,000)—well under its €600,000 ($700,000) low estimate. Questions have been raised about its provenance; French newspaper Le Figaro reported Thursday that “the best market experts refused to acknowledge [the hat] as a good one—and the great connoisseurs of the Empire knew that it came from a dealer at the Louvre des Antiquaires [a complex of antique, art, and jewelry shops in Paris] who had produced no fewer than 20 fakes, aging the felt of the hats… adding cockades.”
The highest price ever paid at auction for one of Napoleon’s hats is €1.9 million ($2.2 million), set at Osenat & Binoche Giquello in Fontainebleau in 2023.
This was not the first time Sotheby’s has auctioned Napoleon’s possessions. In 1823, just two years after his death, the house sold his library from Saint Helena in London. When Napoleon was exiled there, he took 112 volumes (a nice symmetry with the current sale’s 112 lots), along with a pastry chef and his servants, to the volcanic island between Africa and South America.
“Some 200 years ago, Sotheby’s had the honour of auctioning Napoleon’s personal library—an extraordinary success which was echoed this evening when we unveiled one of the most significant collections of his belongings ever assembled, a powerful reminder of how Napoleon continues to captivate the world with his legacy and myth,” the house said in a statement. ”Pierre-Jean Chalençon’s remarkable collection drew global attention, far surpassing estimates and setting new benchmarks for this category.”
The top price ever paid for one of Napoleon’s belongings is €4.66 million ($5.4 million), when Drouot auctioneers in Paris sold his personal sabre last month. Chalençon—described by The Times of London as “France’s most famous antiques collector”—told the New York Post before the sale that he hoped Tesla billionaire Elon Musk would be the ideal buyer for the collection.
“[The lots] are like my babies,” he said. “And I wish Elon Musk, the new Napoleon, to buy everything, to keep my babies together.” It’s not known if Musk bid on any of the work
In 2015, Chalençon—who has described himself as “Napoleon’s press officer”—purchased the Palais Vivienne for €6 million ($6.9 million) and filled it with his Napoleonic memorabilia, which reportedly includes more than 1,000 items, among them the statesman’s 5.33-carat ruby coronation ring.
In March, The Times reported that Chalençon was struggling to repay a €10 million loan from Swiss Life Banque Privée that had financed his acquisitions. Chalençon, however, told Le Parisien, “I am not riddled with debts. I am doing well.”
In a dramatic turn at the close of the sale, Le Figaro reported that an unannounced group of six individuals carrying folders with Ministry of Public Finance letterhead took notes on the prices of the lots and “visibly requested the seizure of the proceeds.”
The man who has assembled “one of the most significant offerings of Napoleonic material to come to market,” according to Sotheby’s, is hoping Elon Musk buys it all.
On June 25 in Paris, the house is selling around 100 lots from the private collection of Pierre-Jean Chalençon, described as “France’s most famous antiques collector” by the UK Times. The sale is called “Napoleon: A Historic Collection.”
Chalençon recently told the New York Post that he thinks Tesla billionaire Elon Musk is the ideal prospective buyer for his collection, which includes one of Napoleon’s iconic bicorne hats and a herald sword and stick used during the French general’s 1804 coronation ceremony at Notre-Dame de Paris. Sotheby’s is also selling his worn stockings and portable camp bed.
“[The lots] are like my babies,” he said. “And I wish Elon Musk, the new Napoleon, to buy everything, to keep my babies together.”
“Echoing Napoleon’s words—‘What a novel my life!’—this collection reads like a vivid historical epic, unfolding across battlefields and boudoirs, ceremonial halls, and intimate chambers, alternating a chronicle of power, politics, and pageantry, to the vulnerabilities, ambitions and contradictions of the man behind the myth,” Sotheby’s said in a statement.
Chalençon is reportedly being forced to sell the Parisian mansion he transformed into a shrine to Napoleon to pay off a €10 million loan. He purchased the Palais Vivienne in 2015 for €6 million and wasted no time in decking it out with his collection of Napoleonic memorabilia, which is allegedly 1,000 pieces strong. It includes Napoleon’s coronation ring, which has a 5.33 carat ruby. The antiques dealer has described himself as “Napoleon’s press officer.”
In March, the Times wrote that he is struggling to pay off a €10 million loan that he took out from Swiss Life Banque Privée to finance his purchases. However, he told Le Parisien: “I am not riddled with debts. I am doing well.”
The collection was shown at Sotheby’s Hong Kong May 23–27, and is currently displayed at Sotheby’s New York until June 11 before the auction in the French capital later this month.
It remains to be seen if Musk will take a break from leveling insults at Donald Trump to bid on the sale.
Sotheby’s is selling what it’s calling “one of the most significant offerings of Napoleonic material ever to come to market” on June 25 in Paris.
Around 100 lots from the private collection of prominent French antiques collector Pierre-Jean Chalençon will hit the auction block. They span imperial furniture, Old Master paintings, and “deeply personal relics that reflect the inner world of [Napoleon Bonaparte],” Sotheby’s said in a statement.
“Echoing Napoleon’s words—‘What a novel my life!’—this collection reads like a vivid historical epic, unfolding across battlefields and boudoirs, ceremonial halls, and intimate chambers, alternating a chronicle of power, politics, and pageantry, to the vulnerabilities, ambitions and contradictions of the man behind the myth,” the house said.
The standout lots include one of Napoleon’s iconic bicorne hats. Unlike other French army officers who wore their bicornes front to back, the general famously sported en bataille (with the wings parallel to his shoulder). It has a high estimate of €800,000.
“This bicorne, crafted by Poupard, Napoleon’s official hatmaker, was personally gifted by the Emperor to General Mouton, one of his most trusted and courageous commanders,” the house said. “Following General Mouton’s decisive role in the Battle of Essling in May 1809, Napoleon reportedly praised him with the words: ‘My mouton is a lion.’”
A herald sword and stick used during Napoleon’s 1804 coronation ceremony at Notre-Dame de Paris with a high estimate of €400,000 will also be sold. So too will his personal gold and ebony seal (high estimate: €250,000). And for anyone who wants to get even more personal with the French general, Sotheby’s is also selling his worn stockings and portable camp bed.
“Napoleon has acquired rockstar status. As one of the most famous people in the world, his life and achievements continue to capture the imagination of so many, including leading film directors,” Marine de Cenival, head of sale, silver, at Sotheby’s Paris, told ARTnews.
“Hugely passionate about Napoleon, Pierre-Jean Chalençon purchased his first item when he was just 18 years of age, and over the next four decades he assembled a tremendous collection spanning Napoleon’s entire life,” de Cenival continued. “As a result, this is a very complete collection and all the material comes to auction with provenances that you can only dream of: Napoleon, Joséphine, Marie-Louise, the Imperial family, and so on. Its appearance now, at a time when interest in Napoleon is at fever pitch, provides a wonderful opportunity for collectors to acquire their very own piece of French history.”
Chalençon, whom the Times described as “France’s most famous antiques collector,” is reportedly being forced to sell the Parisian mansion he transformed into a shrine to Napoleon to pay off a €10 million loan. He purchased the Palais Vivienne in 2015 for €6 million and wasted no time in decking it out with his collection of Napoleonic memorabilia, which is allegedly 1,000 pieces strong. It includes Napoleon’s coronation ring, which has a 5.33 carat ruby. Chalençon has described himself as “Napoleon’s press officer.”
In March, the Times wrote that he is struggling to pay off a €10 million loan that he took out from Swiss Life Banque Privée to finance his purchases. However, he told Le Parisien: “I am not riddled with debts. I am doing well.”
The collection will be shown at Sotheby’s Hong Kong from May 23 to 27, and at Sotheby’s New York from June 5 to 11 before the auction in Paris later in the month.
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THE HEADLINES
HITS DON’T LIE. If the Olympics opening ceremony, which tended to promote cultural diversity and inclusion, seems to have conquered the hearts of most people and papers, The Art Newspaper sees it as proof that France is actually fractured. In light of the country’s recent parliamentary elections—during which ten million citizens voted for the xenophobic National Rally (RN) party—the event can be read as an expression of denial, a bitter pill to swallow despite Lady Gaga‘s or even Céline Dion‘s performances. A spokesperson for RN denounced the ceremony as a “shameful spectacle, ransacking French culture”. The French conservative daily Le Figaro did not appreciate the “woke parade”, which it claimed included “divisive provocations.” The day before, acts of sabotage had halted trains across the country, including those carrying athletes, spectators and high-profile guests to the Games. Singer Aya Nakamura’s performance drew a lot of attention after her being subjected, earlier this year, to racist claims. “Such realities, and the ceremony’s location, meant that the opening took place in what felt like a city under siege, surrounded by a security contingent of more than 50,000 soldiers, policemen and gendarmes, the heaviest military deployment seen in the capital since the Second World War,” writes Vincent Noce.
TOP 100. Time magazine has released a new list of 100 “extraordinary destinations”, reports Ocula, focusing on art venues. The list is broken down into two categories: places to stay and places to visit—including art museums. Those sites were evaluated on criteria “including relevance, impact, innovation, and success,” with a clear preference for recently opened, renovated, or expanded locations. Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Manchester’s Aviva Studios (home of Factory International), South Carolina’s International African American Museum, and Tokyo’s teamLab Borderless, which all opened in 2023, made the list, as well as, the freshly inaugurated Kunstsilo museum, originally constructed in Kristiansand, Norway, to house grain in 1934, Berlin’s thatch-roofed Reethaus, and Mexico City’s Olivia Foundation. Let’s go!
THE DIGEST
A bid in the tens of thousands of dollars was not enough to move three artifacts from the world’s greatest ever batsman in Adelaide over the weekend. This triple “duck” came as a surprise, for one of Sir Donald Bradman’s history-making bat had previously been sold by Adelaide auction house du Plessis Auctions for a whopping $183,305. [The Advertiser]
A letter written by Napoleon Bonaparte‘s younger brother Lucien, which had been estimated at £350 to £450 was sold for £500 ($640) at an auction by Halls Fine Art Auctioneers and Valuers in Shrewsbury. Lucien Bonaparte’s signature “LB” seal remains on the letter and has been professionally conserved. [BCC]
Aspen’s annual art week has a newcomer: the inaugural Aspen Art Fair. Opening today, the boutique event will take over the renowned Hotel Jerome through August 2. The fair is the brainchild of art-world veterans Becca Hoffman, who previously oversaw Intersect Art and Design, and Bob Chase, the founder of local gallery Hexton. More than 30 international dealers including Perrotin, Southern Guild, and Patron will display their wares at the Jerome’s stylish, newly Michelin Key-awarded spaces. [CULTURED]
Helen Marden got the profile treatment from Ted Loos. “The artist’s new paintings at Gagosian show her working through the loss of her husband, the artist Brice Marden (who died of cancer aged 85), in a hot palette [of] feathers and shells.” The exhibition, title “The Grief Paintings” will run through September 14 at the gallery’s Park-and-75 outpost. [The New York Times]
This summer, Rome’s Galleria Borghese brings key sculptures from Louise Bourgeois’s oeuvre into dialogue with the museum’s collection of ancient Roman art, Bernini and Canova sculptures, Caravaggio, Titian and Raphael paintings, and the villa’s own 17th-century grandeur. It is the first exhibition dedicated to a contemporary female artist and the first devoted to Bourgeois in Rome. [Wallpaper]
THE KICKER
HEIST GONE WRONG. An eye-catching Abraham Lincoln painting by Dallas-based artist Lindsay Ekstrom was hanging at the recent Hamptons Art Fair. The $36,000 portrait, called “Forever Friday”, shows the Great Emancipator dapperly clad in a floral tux jacket with a Rolex, a blinged out diamond ring and personalized cufflinks. “Ekstrom—who specializes in dandified or hipsterized portraits of cultural icons like Albert Einstein with tattoos, Frida Kahlo in overalls or George Washington in a Louis Vuitton jacket—has also painted Lincoln in an Adidas track jacket and jeans. The Lincoln piece that hung at the Hamptons fair had a turbulent history itself: it had been damaged in an apparent art heist gone wrong. “After weeks of investigation we found the truth of what happened and the painting of Abe was recovered,” said Ekstrom. [Page Six]
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THE HEADLINES
UNDER THE HAMMER. A letter, estimated at £350 ($450) to £450 ($580), is to be sold at auction in Shrewsbury, reports the BBC. It was written by Lucien Bonaparte, Napoleon Bonaparte’s younger brother, while he was a paroled prisoner in 1813. In it, he seeks help to translate from French to English, his epic poem “Charlemagne”, also known as “The Church Delivered”. Halls Fine Art Auctioneers and Valuers’ stamps specialist, Andy Neal, described the letter as being “of postal, historical and literary importance”. Lucien Bonaparte was a French politician and diplomat of the French Revolution, who also participated in the coup that brought his brother, Napoleon, to power. In 1810, he set sail from Italy to start a new life in the USA, but was captured and brought to Britain. He spent time at Dinham, near Ludlow, and then purchased the Thorngrove house near Worcester. Bonaparte and his family were restricted to a 10-mile radius.
WHAT YOU DON’T WISH FOR. Six billboards by the German artist Anne Imhof, emblazoned with the words “Wish You Were Gay”, have been vandalized “in an act of violent aggression”, the artist stated, in the Austrian city of Bregenz. Imhof, who represented Germany at the 2017 Venice Biennale, further described the damage as a “hate crime”. The works were recently installed in one of Bregenz’s main thoroughfares, Bregenzer Seestrasse, as part of the artist’s exhibition at the Kunsthaus Bregenz (“Wish You Were Gay”, until September 22). In a statement posted on Instagram, Imhof said that “the billboards serve as a space for public art and are a tradition of the museum since 1997. Destroying them is not only an assault on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, two spirit and questioning people but an assault on the community of Bregenz”. The billboards, designed in collaboration with the Zak Group, a London-based art and design firm, will be replaced as soon as possible. In a email to The Art Newspaper, the museum confirmed that police have since opened an investigation into the incident.
THE DIGEST
The Monnaie de Paris—the Paris Mint, responsible for forging coins and home to thematic exhibitions, will soon welcome the “House of African Worlds” project. Championed by Emmanuel Macron since 2021, MansA—a hybridization of mansio, Latin for “dwelling”, and Mansa Musa, the 14th-century Malian ruler—is set to open “following a major redevelopment work, and architectural intervention on the façade.” [Beaux Arts]
After almost ten months, over 38,000 Palestinians have been killed and a further 90,000 injured. A global creative community has been bound together to establish initiatives that offer help to the conflict’s countless victims. These include Arts for Impact, a charity auction which aims to raise funds to support urgent medical care in Palestine through the charity Doctors Without Borders. The online sale starting tomorrow is set to include items and experiences that have been offered by prominent figures in the worlds of fashion, music, architecture, literature and art, from one of Castro Smith’s hand-engraved signet rings to one of Wales Bonner’s collegiate-style jackets. [AnOther]
Swiss artist Nicolas Party has designed a pool at the iconic luxury hotel Le Sirenuse, in the Italian seaside town of Positano. The hotel’s owner Antonio Sersale vividly remembers his first plunge into Party’s vision. “It was unbelievable,” he said. “Once it had been filled with water, it couldn’t be heated for a number of days because the tiles had to adjust. The water was freezing, but we just wanted to swim in it immediately and celebrate this beautiful art.” [Artnet]
Right now, in Manhattan’s Garment District, a towering 35-foot black sculpture by American artist Chakaia Booker rises and falls in a spindling honeycomb net of rubber and steel across a plaza on Broadway. The sculpture, titled “Shaved Portions”, is on view on Broadway between 39th and 40th Streets as part of a recurring public sculpture initiative organized by the Garment District Alliance. [Artnet]
A $1.2 million drawing by Pablo Picasso, purchased at Christie’s New York in 2014, was allegedly paid for with money embezzled from Malaysia’s 1MDB sovereign investment fund. US officials announced this week that they have struck a deal with the former general counsel of the scandalized fund in order to recover the work on paper acquired with misappropriated money. [The Art Newspaper]
THE KICKER
EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE A CAT. The Shanghai Museum is currently home to 780 cultural relics highlighting different eras of ancient Egypt. Everyone knows that in ancient Egypt, felines were considered sacred animals. The cat-headed goddess Bastet, embodying benevolence, protection and femininity, is a case in point. To spice up the experience of its spaces and attract the attention of as many people as possible, the Chinese institution is inviting cat owners to visit its newest display in the company of their loyal pets during ten exceptional nights. The maximum capacity is 200 felines per evening. Veterinarians will be around to ensure the animals‘s comfort. The question is, will other museums follow the Shanghai Museum’s example? [Creapills]