Napoleon’s Lost Bicorne Reappears at Château de Chantilly Ahead of 2026 Exhibition
A beaver-pelt bicorne hat linked to Napoleon Bonaparte has been rediscovered in the Condé Museum’s holdings at the Château de Chantilly, after spending more than a century effectively invisible to the public. The hat, which Napoleon brought with him into exile on Saint Helena, resurfaced during preparations for a major exhibition examining his legacy, and was presented to the media on March 26.
Museum director Mathieu Deldicque described the find as “a revelation,” emphasizing that the object’s provenance can be followed in unusually complete detail, from the emperor’s final years to its current home at Chantilly.
The authentication effort was conducted in collaboration with the Musée de l’Armée, France’s Army Museum, which confirmed that the bicorne was made by Poupard, Napoleon’s official hat-maker. According to Jean-Guillaume Parich, the Condé Museum’s curator of 19th-century collections, the hat’s proportions, tricolor cockade, and silk-taffeta lining align with the specifications associated with the “Little Corporal.”
Parich also highlighted a detail that shifts the bicorne from emblem to intimate relic: the silk lining shows clear signs of perspiration. “One can really picture the emperor in his final years,” he said in a statement.
The rediscovery adds a fresh focal point to a field of collecting and scholarship that remains surprisingly finite. Over the course of roughly two decades, Napoleon is believed to have ordered between 60 and 80 bicornes. He wore the hat sideways — unlike many of his military contemporaries — a choice that made him instantly recognizable to his troops. Yet only about 15 bicornes have been authenticated by experts, with most held in French museum collections.
The object’s paper trail also intersects with the complicated afterlife of Napoleon’s personal effects. In his 1821 will, he left several mementos of his imperial reign — including the sword he wore at Austerlitz, the seal of France, and two bicornes — to his son, Napoleon II. Austrian authorities blocked the transfer; after Napoleon II’s death in 1832, the imperial estate was awarded to Napoleon’s sister, Caroline Murat, in 1836.
Beyond the museum world, Napoleonic material continues to draw intense interest on the secondary market. The record price for a bicorne stands at €1.9 million (about $2 million), achieved at Hotel Drouot in Fontainebleau in 2023. In May last year, Napoleon’s 1802 sword — studded with classical themes — sold for €4.6 million ($5.2 million). A month later, a group of more than 100 Napoleonic objects brought €8.3 million ($9.7 million) at Sotheby’s Paris, where a bicorne made €355,600 ($416,410) and the top lot was Jean-Baptist Mauzaisse’s painting of Napoleon crossing the Alps.
At Chantilly, the newly resurfaced bicorne will be one of the anchors of “Napoleon at Chantilly,” on view June 6–October 4, 2026 — an exhibition poised to test how a familiar silhouette can still feel newly charged when its history, and its material traces, come back into focus.
