Napoleon's love letter to his mistress sold for 557,000 dollars at London auction

A love letter from Napoleon to his mistress Josephine sold for 276,000 pounds (EUR 409,000; US$557,000), more than five times its estimate, at a London auction that attracted spirited bidding for several rare items.

Photo: Napoleon's love letter to his mistress sold for 557,000 dollars at London auction

Napoleon's love letter to his mistress sold for 557,000 dollars at London auction

The letter is one of only three known to have survived from the future emperor's passionate three-month affair preceding his marriage to Josephine.

The sale price at Tuesday's auction at Christie's was more than five times the estimated top price of 50,000 pounds (EUR 74,000; US$100,000).

The total price bid for items from the collection of the late Albin Schram was 3,832,488 pounds (EUR 5,664,417; US$7,730,128), double the pre-sale estimate, Christie's said.

The letter from Napoleon to Josephine, given to Schram by a family member in 1973, was the inspiration for his extraordinary collection including letters by Winston Churchill, John Donne, Alexandr Pushkin and Isaac Newton.