Napoleon's account of victory on sale for US$1.2m
Napoleon Bonaparte’s account on his victory during the Battle of Austerlitz and a map of the battle prepared to be exposed at the gallery “Arts et autographes” in Paris on Monday.
Napoleon Bonaparte’s account of his victory at the Battle of Austerlitz, dictated during his exile on the island of Saint Helena, went on sale yesterday in Paris for 1 million euros (US$1.2 million).
The account of the 1805 “three-emperors clash” with Russo-Austrian forces, which is considered Napoleon’s greatest military victory, takes readers through preparations for battle, the fighting itself and is completed by a battle plan drawn by his loyal aide-de-camp General Henri-Gatien Bertrand on tracing paper.
The dense 74-page manuscript, dictated to Bertrand, contains corrections by the exiled emperor, in tiny writing.
Napoleon does not refer to himself in the first person, instead prefacing his remarks with “the emperor says.”
The sale comes at the start of a year marking the bicentenary of Napoleon’s death. Gallery owner Jean-Emmanuel Raux, a collector of French imperial memorabilia, found it in a trove of documents belonging to Bertrand’s heirs.
“It’s the most fabulous document about French history that you could find in a private collection,” he said.
