Napoleon’s ring returns to Valence

The ivory ring depicting three people picking cherries near an ancient temple, fetched €36,250 at an auction in Fontainebleau, Seine-et-Marne – three times the estimate given by the Bonaparte à Valence association.

Following the successful bid, the association’s president Jean-Claude Banc said: “There were some foreign buyers in the room, including some English ones, but I couldn’t let this ring leave for England. That would have been an insult to the memory of the Emperor.”