FONTAINEBLEAU, France — A handwritten letter by Napoleon Bonaparte, in which the French Emperor denies authorizing the 1809 kidnapping of Pope Pius VII, is set to go under the hammer this Sunday, coinciding with the global mourning period following the death of Pope Francis.
The rare letter, signed “Napole”, is expected to fetch between €12,000 and €15,000 ($14,000–$17,000) at the Osenat auction house in Fontainebleau, just south of Paris.
It provides a glimpse into one of the most controversial and politically charged moments of Napoleon’s reign — his fractious relationship with the Catholic Church.
In July 1809, French forces stormed the Quirinal Palace in Rome and abducted Pope Pius VII, taking him first to Savona in northern Italy and later to Fontainebleau, where he remained a prisoner for five years.
The abduction followed the Pope’s refusal to concede to Napoleon’s demands to control the French clergy, setting up a major clash between church and state.
Napoleon’s letter, addressed to French nobleman and political ally Jean-Jacques-Régis de Cambacérès, seeks to distance himself from the papal arrest.
“It was without my orders and against my will that the Pope was taken out of Rome; it is again without my orders and against my will that he is being brought into France,” Napoleon wrote.
He claimed he had only learned of the incident “ten or twelve days after it had already been carried out,” and pledged to consider appropriate action once he received confirmation of the Pope’s whereabouts.
Experts believe the letter was designed for public consumption. “Napoleon knows this letter will be made public and that it’s intended for authorities everywhere,” said Jean-Christophe Chataignier, a Napoleonic era expert at Osenat. “This arrest is one of the events that will define Napoleon’s reign, at a political and religious level.”
The timing of the auction is particularly poignant, occurring just one day after the funeral of Pope Francis, who passed away earlier this week. The event has renewed global focus on the papacy and the Catholic Church’s historical role in European politics.
Historians have long debated Napoleon’s motivations and the impact of the papal kidnapping. In his 2021 book To Kidnap a Pope, historian Ambrogio Caiani described the arrest as “one of the greatest miscalculations of (Napoleon’s) career,” suggesting it fueled both domestic unrest and international condemnation.
The ordeal of Pius VII followed a similar tragedy under his predecessor, Pius VI, who was also taken captive by French forces in 1799 and died in detention the following year.
Napoleon memorabilia continues to draw strong interest from collectors. Last year, a pair of pistols the emperor had reportedly intended to use for suicide fetched €1.7 million, and his iconic bicorne hat set a record at €1.9 million in November 2023.
The upcoming sale of this historically significant letter serves as a stark reminder of the enduring tension between temporal power and spiritual authority — a theme that continues to resonate through centuries of European history.
