Napoleon Bonaparte's hat sold for record 1.9 million euros at a Paris auction

Jean-Pierre Osenat, the head of the auction house that sold the hat, described the Napoleon bicorne as the "holy grail" for collectors.

• Legendary French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte's hat was auctioned off today.
• It was expected to go for between 600,000 euros and 800,000 euros, or around $655,000 to $873,000.
• It actually fetched around 1.9 million euros, which is about $2.1 million.

A hat owned by the legendary French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte went up for auction today.

The bidding started at Osenat auction house in Fontainebleau, Paris, on Sunday and the hat was expected to be sold for between 600,000 euros, which is about $655,000, and 800,000 euros, which is around $873,000.

But the iconic hat ended up going for 1.9 million euros, which is roughly $2.1 million, to a buyer who has not yet made themself known, the BBC reported.

The bicorne black beaver felt hat is one of around 120 bicorne hats that Napoleon owned during his reign in the 19th century.

Napoleon would wear the hat sideways to make himself easier to spot in battle, as it distinguished him from other officers who wore their hats facing forward.

"People recognised this hat everywhere. When they saw it on the battlefields, they knew Napoleon was there," Jean-Pierre Osenat, the head of the Osenat auction house, said, per the BBC.

"And when in private, he always had it on his head or he had it in his hand, and sometimes he threw it on the ground. That was the image — the symbol of the emperor."

Osenat told The Associated Press that for people who are fans of Napoleon, "it's the holy grail to have a hat."

"There's about 20 left that are authentic and about 15 of them are kept in museums, so there's about 4 or 5 that are in collectors' hands," he said.

The 1.932 million euro fee is a new record for one of the hats, just pipping the 1.884 million euros a South Korean collector paid in 2014, The Guardian reported.

Napoleon's wooden vanity case is also up for auction today. The case contains some of his razors, a silver toothbrush, and a pair of scissors. All the items come from the collection of a collector named Jean-Louis Noisiez, per The AP.

"Napoleon," a movie about the emperor's rise to power, is set to be released on November 22. It features Joaquin Phoenix in the lead role.