- Jul 10, 2004
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The engagement ring the young Napoleon "must have broken his wallet" to buy for his fiancee Josephine shattered expectations today at the Osenat auction house in France when it sold for close to $1 million, Osenat's expert Jean-Christophe Chataignier said.
The winning bidder, who wanted to stay completely anonymous, paid $949,000, almost 50 times the $20,000 Osenat had expected to bring in. Including the buyer's 25 percent commission to Osenat, the total price for the ring was $1.17 million.
"In my wildest dreams, I did not think we would outsell the estimate by more than 47 times," said Osenat's Emily Villane, who led today's auction. "We based the estimates in our catalog on the actual market value of the ring, minus Napoleon and Josephine provenance. It is not our job to tell bidders how much they should pay for the historical premium."
There was intense interest in the ring, she said. In addition to the 300 people in the Fontainebleau auction house, about 50 more international bidders were hooked up by phone.
Osenat, which is in Fontainebleau, outside Paris, also received more than 40 written bids by email from the U.S. alone, she said.
The auction house set up extra phone lines and hired 10 additional people to be prepared for the sale.
OsenatNapoleon Bonaparte presented his fiance... View Full Size OsenatNapoleon Bonaparte presented his fiance Josephine with a diamond and sapphire engagement ring.
"It was 15 minutes of relentless bidding," Villane said. "We opened at 10,000 euros, I raised it to 50,000 euros. From then on it was going up by 10,000. When the hammer went down at 730,000 euros there was a huge applause."
The sale was timed to coincide with the 250th anniversary of Josephina's birthday.
Napoleon and Josephine's Engagement Ring Sells for $949,000 - ABC News
The winning bidder, who wanted to stay completely anonymous, paid $949,000, almost 50 times the $20,000 Osenat had expected to bring in. Including the buyer's 25 percent commission to Osenat, the total price for the ring was $1.17 million.
"In my wildest dreams, I did not think we would outsell the estimate by more than 47 times," said Osenat's Emily Villane, who led today's auction. "We based the estimates in our catalog on the actual market value of the ring, minus Napoleon and Josephine provenance. It is not our job to tell bidders how much they should pay for the historical premium."
There was intense interest in the ring, she said. In addition to the 300 people in the Fontainebleau auction house, about 50 more international bidders were hooked up by phone.
Osenat, which is in Fontainebleau, outside Paris, also received more than 40 written bids by email from the U.S. alone, she said.
The auction house set up extra phone lines and hired 10 additional people to be prepared for the sale.
OsenatNapoleon Bonaparte presented his fiance... View Full Size OsenatNapoleon Bonaparte presented his fiance Josephine with a diamond and sapphire engagement ring.
"It was 15 minutes of relentless bidding," Villane said. "We opened at 10,000 euros, I raised it to 50,000 euros. From then on it was going up by 10,000. When the hammer went down at 730,000 euros there was a huge applause."
The sale was timed to coincide with the 250th anniversary of Josephina's birthday.
Napoleon and Josephine's Engagement Ring Sells for $949,000 - ABC News
