The legendary headwear belonged to the equally legendary French emperor has found its new owner. A collector from South Korea payed €1.9 million for the right to flaunt the two-pointed hat of Napoleon Bonaparte. The lot was put up for auction in Fontainebleau which is famous for its Renaissance palace. Several hundred emperor's wardrobe pieces went under the hummer in the King's former quarters. Monaco's royal family was the previous owner of that important element of a brilliant commander's image, the collection was amassed by Prince Louis II, great-great-grandfather of Prince Albert II. But the monarchical family decided to get rid of some pieces of wardrobe in order to raise money for refurbish of their palace. The auction house estimated this lot at €300-400 thousand, but activity the buyers revealed even before the auction started showed that the hat would be sold at a higher price. That's exactly what happened. The sum a bidder from South Korea paid was €1.9 million. It is noteworthy that this Napoleon’s headwear is not an exclusive one as about 19 of his original hats survive today. Historians say Bonaparte wore around 120 hats of various shapes during his life, but most of them were bicorne hats. It is established beyond controversy that this bicorne hat was worn by the future emperor at the Battle of Marengo in 1800.
Bicorne hat was the regular part of military uniform of that time, but Bonaparte made it “his own” and chose to wear with points sideways instead of front and back as it was generally worn. Some people say that he did it in order to be noticed on the battlefield. In 1804 Napoleon went to war with other European countries and took the major part of the continent under control. However, later he was defeated by Russia and abdicated the throne in 1815.