Napoleon love letters fetch over half a million euros
Jon Shelton
April 5, 2019
The letters, which the French state has auctioned at Drouot in Paris, had been in the collection of the bankrupt investment firm Aristophil. On sale were three of the many letters Napoleon wrote to his wife Josephine.
Image: Drouot
Advertisement
The French auction house Drouot announced on Friday that three love letters written by French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte were sold for a combined total of €513,000 ($575,000) in Paris on Thursday.
The letters, penned by Napoleon between 1796 and 1804, were sent to his wife Josephine de Beauharnais.
In one, written during his 1796 Italian campaign, the emperor bemoaned the fact that his wife had not written to him: "No letter from you my adorable friend, you must have very sweet preoccupations since you forget your husband, who, though in the midst of business and extremely tired, thinks only and desires only you (…) I am isolated. You have forgotten me." At the time, Josephine was having an affair with Lieutenant Hippolyte Charles.
The love of his life
The two married in 1796, when Napoleon was 26 and Josephine, a widow and mother of two, was 32. They divorced in 1810, as Josephine was unable to produce an heir. Though he quickly married Marie Louise of Austria, Napoleon remained devoted to Josephine for the remainder of his life. Her name was the last word he uttered on his deathbed in 1821.
Napoleon's letter to his wife Josephine, written during his 1796 Italian campaign, was one of three sold at Paris auction house Drouot on ThursdayImage: Drouot
Auctioning a fraudulent investment firm's collection
The letters were part of the collection of the now defunct investment firm Aristophil, which was shuttered four years ago in scandal. Started by Gerard Lheritier in 1990, the firm speculated in precious documents and objects from antiquity to the twentieth century before going bust.
The company's business scheme, which promised investors hefty returns, ultimately defrauded investors of some €850 million.
When the company went bankrupt its large holding of precious documents was handed over to the French government. The collection is being auctioned off by French houses Ader and Aguttes at Drouot.
Last year, 14 auctions of the Aristophil collection brought €26.4 million. In all, a total of 300 auctions are planned over the next five years. Among the other items sold at Thursday's auction was a rare Enigma encryption machine used by the Nazis during World War II, which fetched €48,100.
8 revolutionary musical pieces
Whether French, Russian or Arab, revolutions have inspired composers to write music that supported revolutionary ideals or dealt with the historical events. And that includes critical voices, too.
In many countries, composers wrote works to support a revolution. The French Revolution in 1789 found its way into numerous compositions. Other uprisings have also influenced musicians. The motto of this year's Beethovenfest, held in Bonn from September 9 through October 9, is "Revolutions" - and some of these pieces are on the playbill.
Image: picture-alliance/Luisa Ricciarini/Leemage
'Yankee Doodle,' the American Independence song
One of the most famous patriotic folk songs of the US, "Yankee Doodle" was sung by American revolutionaries who wanted to break away from the British Empire; they succeeded in 1776. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson underlined the importance of freedom and equality for all people - values which before long were picked up by the French Revolution.
Méhul's 'Coronation Mass for Napoleon'
Etienne-Nicolas Méhul is considered the revolutionary composer par excellence. Napoleon commissioned him to compose one of the most famous hymns of the time, "Le Chant du départ" (Song of Departure). However, Napoleon wasn't interested in the solemn mass that Méhul composed for his coronation. If the piece was largely forgotten, it at least inspired Ludwig van Beethoven in his Fifth Symphony.
Image: picture-alliance/Gep/Citypress24
Cherubini's rescue opera
Luigi Cherubini was also driven by the spirit of revolution. His hit from 1800, "The Water Carrier," is an example of the musical genre called "rescue opera," in which a persecuted character is rescued. In Cherubini's work, a water carrier comes to the aid of a politically persecuted count who shares his progressive views. The opera is said to have influenced Beethoven's "Fidelio."
Image: picture-alliance/Fine Art Images
Beethoven's 'Eroica'
Longer and more intensely expressive than anything that had been composed until then, Beethoven's Third Symphony burst the boundaries in 1803. Beethoven dedicated this truly revolutionary piece to Napoleon. But when Napoleon proclaimed himself Emperor, thus betraying the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity, Beethoven withdrew the dedication.
Image: picture-alliance/Leemage
Prokofiev's 'Cantata for the October Revolution'
In 1937, for the 20th anniversary of the October Revolution, Sergei Prokofiev wrote a celebratory cantata. The choral symphony for 500 instrumentalists and singers included sound effects - even gunfire, machine guns and alarm bells. Accompanied by texts by Marx, Engels and Lenin, the mighty work was censored by Stalin and was first performed in 1966 in a slimmed-down version.
Image: picture-alliance/akg
Schoenberg's 'Ode to Napoleon'
In 1814, the poet and freedom fighter Lord Byron wrote an "Ode" ridiculing Napoleon. In 1942, during the Nazi dictatorship, Arnold Schoenberg set Byron's ode to music in a setting for a speaking voice, piano and string quartet. When a music critic pointed out parallels between Napoleon and Hitler in the work, the politically committed composer didn't contradict him.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/APA Publications Arnold Schönberg Center
1968: The Beatles and 'Revolution'
"Revolution" was the first song recorded for The Beatles' "White Album." John Lennon (front left) had written the piece while in India with the band in 1968. Lennon was inspired by the student riots in Paris, the Vietnam War and the assassination of Martin Luther King. The Beatles' song celebrates a peaceful revolution without violent extremists.
Image: Getty Images
Seda Röder and the Arab Spring
Information on the protest movement in the Arab world is always strongly filtered, says Turkish pianist Seda Röder. That's why she asked composers from Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Bahrain and Turkey to express what the "Arab Spring" means to them in music. The results will be given their first performance in a multimedia work on September 18 during the Beethovenfest in Bonn.
