The identity of the buyer was not made public but the French government has issued an export ban and classified the guns as national treasures.
Inlaid with gold and silver, the pistols feature an engraved image of Napoleon. They sold at the Osenat auction house in Fontainebleau, south of Paris, on Sunday, exceeding the top catalogue estimate of €1.5m.
The guns are said to have almost been used to end the French ruler's life in 1814, when he was forced to give up power after foreign forces defeated his army and occupied Paris.
Bu hikaye The Guardian dergisinin July 09, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye The Guardian dergisinin July 09, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Schauffele shakes off Rose to seal America's clean sweep
Craig Stadler, Tom Watson, Tom Watson, Raymond Floyd. Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Bryson DeChambeau, Xander Schauffele. Not since 1982 had American golfers completed a clean sweep of the four majors until Schauffele emulated Watson by prevailing at Royal Troon.
Five-star Bashir rips apart West Indies for series win
When Nottinghamshire announced at 2pm on the fourth day that entry for the fifth would be free, it looked for all money well, no money like a great offer.
Norris hands Piastri first victory after McLaren team orders row
For Oscar Piastri, taking his debut Formula One victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix will be a moment long to savour, yet it was one that for his McLaren teammate, Lando Norris, could not have been more painful, secured through the gritted teeth of the British driver who was forced to concede a potential win by playing the team game. Pleasure and pain then in an enormously entertaining Fisoap opera in Budapest.
'I went from cloud nine to the of the pack' bottom
Becky Downie has overcome heartbreak, tragedy, and being ostracised in her sport toreach athird Olympics
City of Delight Buzz and cynicism go hand in hand as world awaits the first post-Covid Olympics
In the late hours of the final Friday before the Olympic Games begin in Paris, a young waiter named Anatole closed up his brasserie for the night in the shadow of the Sainte-Chapelle by the Seine.
Going for growth Productivity's a puzzle in our service economy
I 'm due a haircut and in the past week received a message from my barber containing the news that the price will be 10% higher than the last time I went for a trim.
Ministers 'must ignore the net-zero nimbys' to hit 2030 target
The government will need to take on \"net-zero nimbys\" and ramp up public investment to decarbonise Britain's homes, transport and electricity system, a thinktank has said.
'Afghanistan is silent' Young musicians who found hope in Portugal
Astone's throw from Portugal's oldest cathedral and buzzing bakeries serving up pastéis de nata, the complex notes of a sitar fill the ground floor of an unassuming building in the northern city of Braga.
Free to fight The convicts who are plugging gaps in Kyiv's military
Last year Volodymyr Prysiazhniuk quarrelled with his father-in-law, Yuriy.
Women in war-torn Sudanese city forced to have sex with soldiers for food, victims say
Women struggling to survive in the war-torn Sudanese city of Omdurman say soldiers are forcing them to have sex in exchange for food.
