For more than a century a family in New Zealand has kept hidden in a suitcase a remarkable piece of history: a lock of Napoleon Bonaparte’s hair.
The lock and 39 other items from the days leading up to Napoleon’s death in 1821 were unveiled last month at an Antiques Roadshow fundraiser in Rotorua, 145 miles (234km) from Auckland.
Now they have been sold at auction, with many of the most significant pieces – including the lock, a diary recording conversations with the former French Emperor and a lithograph from a drawing made the morning after his death – being purchased by anonymous buyers from London. The hair fetched nearly £9,000.
The collection of historical effects, hailed as one of the most significant to be