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The French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte's two pistols, which he had meant to use as a suicide weapon, fetched €1.69 million ($1.8 million) at auction.

The projected price range for the firearms made by the Parisian gunmaker Louis-Marin Gosset was only €1.2 million to €1.5 million.

Sold at Auction

On Sunday, July 7, the pistols were auctioned in the Osenat auction house in Franch, which is located near the Fontainebleau mansion, the site of Napoleon's attempted suicide after his abdication in 1814. The weapons showcase an etched profile of Napoleon, adorned with gold and silver inlays, as reported by BBC.

The sale of the handguns follows a recent export ban imposed by the French Ministry of Culture, which had also designated them as national treasures.

This gives the French government 30 months to negotiate a purchase price with the buyer. Thus, the handguns may only leave France for a limited time.

'Napoleon at His Lowest'

On the evening of April 12, 1814, after his army's defeat at the hands of foreign armies, which forced him to relinquish power, he allegedly intended to use the pistols to take his own life. His grand squire Armand de Caulaincourt reportedly pulled the powder away from the guns, so Napoleon drank poison instead but still lived.

As per a report by The Guardian, Napoleon eventually gave the weapons to Caulaincourt, who handed them to his heirs.

The original packaging for the handguns and several accessories, such as a powder horn and powder tamping rods, were also part of the sale.

According to auctioneer Jean-Pierre Osenat, another thing being auctioned was the "image of Napoleon at his lowest point."

Following his banishment to the Mediterranean island of Elba, the historic leader regained power in 1815, only to be ultimately crushed in the Battle of Waterloo. Two banishments later, in 1821, he was exiled again, this time to the South Atlantic island of St. Helena.

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