AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Some call him a genius and a statesman. Others say he was a tyrant. Napoleon Bonaparte died 204 years ago, and now Sotheby's is auctioning off some of the general-turned-emperor's belongings in Paris. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports.
PIERRE-JEAN CHALENCON: My name is Pierre-Jean Chalencon. I am French collector.
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: Chalencon has been obsessed with Napoleon since childhood. A hundred and fourteen items from his vast collection will go on the auction block Wednesday.
CHALENCON: It's a self-made man. I like Napoleon because he's like Rockefeller. He's like Getty. I started to collect - I was 14 years old. Now it's 44 years.
BEARDSLEY: Chalencon's collection is open to the public here at Sotheby's in Paris, part of a modern pop art exhibit with soundtrack. Artistic designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac created it.
JEAN-CHARLES DE CASTELBAJAC: I love to electrify the history. I love to give the future to the past. And my quest in this adventure was to transform this amazing collection into an emotional experience.
BEARDSLEY: There's one of Napoleon's rings - large diamonds encircle a big capital N, and his red velvet travel throne with another giant N stitched in gold thread. One of the emperor's iconic bicorne hats will be up for bid. He wore the two-point felt chapeau sideways so his men could distinguish his horseback profile through the smoke of the battlefield, says Chalencon.
CHALENCON: Napoleon was a designer a little bit, and he want to be unique. And all of his generals was wearing the hat completely differently. It's why Napoleon decide to have a very simple hat, no plums, no nothing.
BEARDSLEY: You can also bid for Napoleon's fancy fold-up camp bed. Chalencon says it's from his last battle at Waterloo, when Europe's armies came together to defeat the French emperor once and for all.
Is it the same mattress?
CHALENCON: Yes. And it's perfect (laughter). And you see you have his last shirt, his last underwear, his cravat in silk.
BEARDSLEY: Last worn by the defeated emperor on the island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic, where he died in exile. The exhibit traces Napoleon's rise to his decline with some astonishing curios. Castelbajac shows me one of Napoleon's sleeves.
DE CASTELBAJAC: It's a sleeve of his jacket. Suddenly, a waiter drop some sauce on his sleeve. So they have to take off the sleeve during the dinner to bring it to clean, but they never give it back.
BEARDSLEY: Castelbajac created Instagrammable (ph) scenes to attract the new generation of collectors. He says Napoleon was a great communicator.
DE CASTELBAJAC: He will have used Instagram all the time, from Austerlitz, from St. Helena, to say, hey, I will come back.
BEARDSLEY: Sixteen-year-old high schooler Roman Bouchonnet is digging the exhibit.
ROMAN BOUCHONNET: It's very great. In other museum, they are all behind glasses, but here you can really get up close.
BEARDSLEY: Bouchonnet says some consider Napoleon a warmonger, but Napoleon also gave France its civil and penal code.
ROMAN: Napoleon is a perfect example of how most historical figures are not black or white.
BEARDSLEY: Sotheby's is hoping to make upwards of $7 million from the sale of this imperfect, historical icon's most personal belongings. The bidding for his bicorne hat starts at just over half a million. That sleeve with stain will start at a bit over 20,000.
Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Paris.
(SOUNDBITE OF BERLIN PHILHARMONIC AND HERBERT VON KARAJAN'S "QUINTETTINO OP 30, NO 6, LA MUSICA NOTTURNA DELLA STRADE DE MADRID: 4") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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