The ring Napoleon gave to Josephine sold for 896,400 euros (including fees), or $1.15 million, French auction house Osenat tells JCK.
The ring had an estimate of $23,500 to $26,000.
“In my wildest dreams, I did not think we would outsell the estimate by more than 47 times,” Emily Villane, an auction house spokeswoman, told ABCnews.com. “We based the estimates in our catalog on the actual market value of the ring, minus Napoleon and Josephine provenance. It is not our job to tell bidders how much they should pay for the historical premium.”
The ring features a pear-shaped sapphire and a diamond. The combined weight of the two is the less than a carat.
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