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TechnoratiNapoleon love letters to go under the hammer
Fifty letters written by Josephine, the first wife of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, along with hundreds of rare documents estimated to be worth up to 20,000 euros will be sold at auction on 27 March.
The letters and documents relate to or concern the history of the revolution and the First Empire, and will go under the hammer at the Osenat auction house in Fontainebleau, near Paris.
“My husband does not like me, he adores me. I believe it will become crazy," says one letter, written by Josephine a few months after her marriage to Bonaparte.
Auctioneer Jean-Pierre Osenat said the 50 letters were gathered from around the world by a French collector who had fallen in love with Josephine.
From the first letter penned in 1782, to the last missives sent weeks before his death, “this collection of letters offers insight into the private life of Napoleon”, said Osenat.
Despite the passion expressed in some of the letters, the marriage ended in 1810 because Josephine did not bear Napoleon an heir. He married Marie-Louise, Arch-Duchess of Austria, the great-niece of France's last Queen Marie-Antoinette.
They had a son, who became Napoleon II but reigned for only two days at the age of thre and two weeks at the age of four. He died of tuberculosis in 1832.
Comments (1)
French Culture Decadence ?
March 16, 2010
When Napoleon love letters to go under the hammer only indicate the decadence of culture in France, The leter is part of the memories of the man that civilice europa, with his Code.
We think that french people shall call the minister of Culture and put him in the street without pension privilegy.
good luck french people when the next revolution beging?
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