Napoleon's handguns fetch €1.69 million at auction.
The French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte's two pistols, which he once intended to use to kill himself, were sold at auction for €1.69 million.
The firearms, designed by Paris gunmaker Louis-Marin Gosset, were projected to bring between €1.2 million and €1.5 million.
They were sold on Sunday at the Osenat auction house, which is near to the Fontainebleau mansion, where Napoleon attempted suicide after his abdication in 1814.
The handguns' sale comes after France's cultural ministry recently categorized them as national treasures and prohibited their export.
This means that the new owner, who has not been identified, has given the French government 30 months to make a purchase bid. The pistols can only temporarily leave France as a result of this.
The guns have a profile engraving of Napoleon himself and are inlaid with gold and silver.
It was reported that on the evening of April 12, 1814, he considered using them as a means of ending his life after losing his army to foreign forces and having to cede his position of authority.
Napoleon, however, drank poison instead of the gunpowder after his grand squire Armand de Caulaincourt removed it.
The handguns were then given by him to Caulaincourt, who then bequeathed them to his heirs.
A powder horn and several powder tamping rods, along with the original box the guns came in, were also for sale. "Image of Napoleon at his lowest point" was being sold with the items, according to auctioneer Jean-Pierre Osenat.
Memorabilia featuring Napoleon is in great demand. In November, a tricorne hat that was included into his trademark sold for €1.9 million.
After being banished to the Mediterranean island of Elba, the legendary leader came back to power in 1815, but he was ultimately destroyed in the Battle of Waterloo.
Following his second exile, to the South Atlantic island of St. Helena, he passed away in 1821.
