The key to the room in which Napoleon Bonaparte died in exile on St. Helena was sold at Sotheby’s for $ 112,000, the auction house reported on Thursday, January 14.
The key, 13 cm long, is sold with an envelope that read: “Key to the room in Longwood where Napoleon died, and which I personally took out of the castle. Ch.R. Fox, Saint Helena, September 6, 1822 “.
Charles Richard Fox was a British military man. He brought the key from the island to Scotland, after which he presented it to his mother, a fan of the deposed emperor of France. Recently, in a house in Scotland, a key and a note were found in a suitcase.
According to preliminary estimates, the cost of the key was $ 4.1-6.8 thousand. Thus, the relic was sold almost 16 times more expensive, writes RIA Novosti.
On December 13, it was reported that one of the first editions of the book about the young wizard Harry Potter was sold at an online auction for £ 68 thousand (about $ 90 thousand).