Napoleon Bonaparte’s death bed and sweat-stained shirt is about to hit the auction block in France — and so is a lock of his hair, his ivory cane and some of last-living bandages.
The items, along with a bottle of dirt that was scooped from his tomb, are scheduled to go to the highest bidder on March 23, the New York Post reported. They’ve all been stored, largely untouched, since his 1821 death.
The hair especially could prove an historian’s dream.
“We can effectively know whether or not there was arsenic in the hair of the emperor at the moment of his death,” said auctioneer Jean-Pierre Osenat, of the Osenat auction house, to Reuters. “Personally, I am convinced he died from a natural death, a cancer of the stomach like his father. But I know there are people who think he was poisoned.”
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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