Shorouk Express
A diamond brooch that Napoleon lost as he hastily fled the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 sold for about 3.5 million Swiss francs ($4.4 million) at a Sotheby’s auction in Geneva this week.
The circular jewel, made in the early 19th century, features a 13.04-carat oval diamond surrounded by smaller diamonds.
Napoleon, who had worn the item as a hat ornament, lost the brooch — along with medals, a sword, silverware, a hat and a jewelry box — as he beat a hasty retreat from Waterloo. His defeat to a coalition of European armies, led by Britain’s Duke of Wellington and Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher of Prussia, ended his reign as emperor of France, and his quest to dominate Europe.
As his French forces fled the battlefield, their carriages were slowed by muddy roads. The Prussian army captured at least two carriages that held Napoleon’s personal items, said Vincent Meylan, a historian in Paris who described the brooch for the Sotheby’s catalog.
Marshall von Blücher sent Napoleon’s captured hat and sword to the Prussian king, Frederick William III, while Prussian officers took some of the jewels for themselves. According to Mr. Meylan, one of the officers took the brooch and presented it to the king three days after the battle.
“This ornament is so rare that it should rightfully belong only to the Crown of Prussia and our revered King,” the officer said, according to Mr. Meylan.
Interest in Napoleon’s valuables has grown in recent weeks, since the theft of $100 million worth of jewelry from the Louvre in Paris, a trove that included jewels given by the former emperor to his second wife, Marie Louise, for their marriage in 1810. One of the stolen pieces was an emerald-and-diamond necklace featuring more than 1,000 stones; another was a pair of emerald-and-diamond earrings.
But jewelry experts were split over whether the Louvre heist contributed to the brooch’s high sale price at the auction on Wednesday.
Andres White Correal, chairman of jewelry for Sotheby’s in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said there had been strong interest in the piece as soon as its sale was announced, more than a week before the Louvre burglary. It was the first time that the brooch had ever been up for sale, he said.
But he said that the theft was a reminder that royal and noble jewels are scarce, and he lamented that the thieves were likely to break up the stolen treasures to make them easier to sell.
“The pain that they’re not going to be retrieved intact — they’re just going to be broken up — underlines the fact that any jewelry that is 220 years old is a precious thing in itself just because of having survived in its original form to this day,” Mr. White Correal said.
Alessandro Borruso, a jewelry expert in London, had a slightly different view, saying that after the Louvre heist, there are even fewer preserved artifacts that belonged to Napoleon, a towering figure in European history.
“Whatever is left probably will appreciate more,” he said.
Napoleon, who rose to rule France in 1799, was known for carrying jewels and other valuables with him, even into battle. “That was his way of life,” Mr. Meylan said in an interview.
Even as he rode into Waterloo, the battle that would become synonymous with ultimate defeat, “He was quite sure he was going to win, so obviously there was going to be a winning parade, a victory show of troops in Berlin or Brussels,” Mr. Meylan said. “If this was the case, he would have needed to wear something quite spectacular.”
Another item that Sotheby’s sold on Wednesday was a 132.66-carat beryl, worn by Napoleon at his coronation in 1804.
Sale prices for diamonds have fallen in recent years because of the volatile economy and the growing popularity of laboratory-grown diamonds, which has undercut the market for natural stones. But experts said there is still a market for high-end and historically significant pieces.
“We have two special cases in French history and especially in jewelry: Napoleon and Marie Antoinette,” Mr. Meylan said. “There will always be people ready to buy.”
