Napoleon Bonaparte and his fiance Josephine’s diamond and sapphire engagement ring was sold out for close to 1 million dollars at the Osenat auction house in France on Sunday.
Osenat’s expert Jean-Christophe Chataignier said that the winning bidder, who wanted to stay completely anonymous, paid 949,000 dollars, which was almost 50 times the 20,000 dollars the auction house had expected to bring in, ABC News reported. Including the buyer’s 25 percent commission to the auction house, the total price for the ring was 1.17 million dollars.
Auctioneer Emily Villane said that they based the estimates in their catalog on the actual market value of the ring, minus Bonaparte and Josephine provenance.
She said that there was intense interest in the ring and in addition to the 300 people in the Fontainebleau auction house, about 50 more international bidders were hooked up by phone.