A diamond brooch believed to have belonged to Napoleon Bonaparte sold to a private collector for $4.4 million at a Sotheby’s auction in Geneva, beating its previous estimate of $150,000 to $250,000, the auction house said.
The final price was nearly 17 times the high estimate.
According to the auction house, the brooch can be clearly identified as a hat ornament left by Napoleon in his carriage during his retreat from the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.
The brooch, which can also be worn as a pendant, contains an oval diamond weighing more than 13.04 carats, surrounded by smaller stones.
This precious piece was discovered among Napoleon’s personal effects left behind in carriages that got bogged down in a swamp as the emperor and his troops retreated from the British forces of the Duke of Wellington and the Prussian army under Field Marshal von Blücher.
The brooch remained in the possession of the royal house of Hohenzollern for nearly two centuries. The dynasty ruled Prussia and later the German Empire until 1918. In recent years, the piece has been in a private collection, from where it was auctioned.