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Napoleon’s Hat Up For Auction In London: Antique Bicorne Bearing The Emperor’s DNA Could Fetch Up To $2 Million

Guy Martin
Senior Contributor

The last Napoleon felted beaver bicorne, pictured above before its auction in Paris in 2014, went for $2.2 million to a South Korean collector. Now on display in Bonhams Hong Kong showrooms is the latest Napoleon bicorne up for grabs — minus the rosette and its tab as seen above — set to travel on from Hong Kong to be put on display in Paris and in London in the coming weeks, before finally coming under the hammer in London on October 27.

Very conservatively, not to say laughably, estimated by Bonhams at somewhere between $140,000 and $180,000, it will likely top that price by several orders of magnitude.

By definition, all possessions belonging to Napoleon have extraordinary provenances, the “war hats” especially so, but the provenance of the current bicorne is especially fetching. Bought from a modest German auction house by an anonymous collector, it was not known by either of those parties to have belonged to the French emperor. But: The collector must have at least had a suspicion.

He or she let it be examined, and in this microscopically close examination, according to Bonhams, two hairs were found bearing the emperor’s distinctive DNA. The chance that those hairs of Napoleon’s could have been placed in a vintage bicorne not belonging to the Frenchman does, marginally, exist, but is considered as microscopic as the hairs themselves. At any rate, the fact that this perspicacious collector has done the DNA due diligence is expected to drive the auction price into the stratosphere.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/guymartin/2...-2-million/amp/

I love historical artifacts... but that's a ton of money for a hat.... bit crazy...

100% I’m wearing that thing out if I bought it.

Also, what happened to just robbing graves to get cool stuff?

That’s some hat, Harry

Well, it's all about the value of the object and its ability to hold its significance.
Ask someone like the Haslems, because I don't have money, but, a think like this auction, can also be a marking of the lost value of the dollar because of inflation.
The amount of millionaires, across the world increases, with time and the increase in world population, dollars, are always just a fleeting measurement of value people need to trade goods to survive.
But, there is only so much gold, only so many plots of soil on the earth, things go up in value, or down based on desireablity.
Napoleans Hat, is not going to lose its place in history, it won't lose value unless several more were found.
They only made so many 1967 corvettes, stuff like that.

eeeee. This is exciting. Based on, the price of the previous Napolean hat
But,
look, Multi million dollar corporations make huge somes of money hand over fist in profits even on weekly basis's sometimes.
A bidding war for something like this would only show that the value of a dollar only equals the amount of hurt it causes someone to lose it.

One of the variables, could be how wide spread the knowledge and accessibility of the auction is, worldwide.
Certainly, Napoleans Hat, would hold value in many parts of the entire world, just every country.

I can't imagine, 1,600,000 dollars staying similar to the previous Auction, anymore than quarterback contracts in the NFL don't increase over time.

I'm guessing, if the Auction is well attended, as one would think in London,
With the DNA authenticity, I'm guessing between 4 and 6 million dollars, whatever that would translate to.

And that is not, as much a sign of the desireability of the hat, as much as the hat's probability to retain value, and the dollars prediction to continue to lose value.

Also, a Ton of individuals would be looking to find somewhere to invest their current dollars, if they have a bunch of dollars they won't need to keep liquid, so they can retain their value in the future against a falling real value of the dollar.
Which is probably why people invest in Art in the first place.
Napoleans' hat, unlike maybe Micheal Jacksons' Monkeys' bones; aren't likely to have peaked in value and then lose value over time.
Napoleans hat, is about a one of a kind and it represents an era of a time in history. Was he before the Renaissance, I may be selling this Hat short.
4, to 6, million, 2021, 10-18 million, 2030? Maybe, if WW3 doesn't happen in the meantime and the world markets don't crash.
Is Napoleon going to go out of style.

I wonder where Cap'n Crunch got his hat. ( 7 million, 7.3 million topps?)

And start riding a horse named Marengo around town!