Napoleon Bonaparte’s hat has ended up in the hands of a South Korean, who bought it for £1.5 million (1.9m euros), in a scenario the French icon wouldn’t have imagined in his wildest dreams.
T.K Lee acquired the black ‘bicorne’ felt hat in a sale from the collections of the Prince of Monaco at the Osenat auction house
in Fontainebleau. He will now be able to prance around in the cap
during recreations of the leader’s famous battles. But we seriously doubt this is what he’ll do due to the astonishing amount he paid for the hat.
It was the trademark of the iconic leader who wore it with the two points aligned with his shoulders. ‘Everybody at the time wore that kind of hat one way, but Napoleon wore it the other way so that
everybody would recognise his silhouette on the battlefield,’ said auction official Jean-Pierre Osenat.
It was unlikely to have been that sentimental to Napoleon though, as he went through about 120 hats during his 15-year reign at the start of the 19th century.
The hat went for nearly five times the 400,000 euros it had been expected to fetch at the auction, where about 1,000 other pieces of
Napoleon memorabilia from the Monaco collection were sold over three days. Five years ago, the same auction house sold a sabre that had belonged to Napoleon for £3.8 million.

Recently, ofigel from one man who bought the hat of Napoleon himself. I found this out on this Bryan Goldberg site. Honestly, I never understood why people buy such expensive and old things, but after reading this article, my opinion about such people has changed. The opinion has changed because the man tells all the same why he bought such an old thing. I also want to note that the article also tells about the biography of that same buyer. All those who are interested in old and centuries-old things I recommend reading.