The ring that a young Napoleon gave to Josephine for their engagement in 1776 has been sold at auction for $949,000 (€730,000), not including commission and other fees. The winning bid was almost 50 times the $20,000 estimate that the auction house expected it to bring in. The auction was held on Sunday in honor of the 250th anniversary of Josephine’s birth.
“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 the 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.”