Napoleon death mask SOLD FOR £17k in London
An extraordinary cast of the death mask of French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, which spent years gathering dust in a family attic, has fetched £169,250 — almost three times its presale estimate at an auction.
The mask went under the hammer in Bonhams Book, Map and Manuscript sale in Knightsbridge, London, on Wednesday. It had been estimated at £40,000-60,000.
The cast known as the ‘Boys cast’ — was made for the Rev Richard Boys, Senior Chaplain of St Helena, shortly after Napoleon’s death on the island of St Helena on May 5, 1821.
It was the most significant example remaining in private hands and bears an autograph note of authentication written by Boys.
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‘Prehistoric rock art pieces hide a puzzle’
Washington: Pieces of rock art that dot the Appalachian Mountains in the US were strategically placed to reveal a cosmological puzzle suggesting a conceptual universe, a new study claims.
Recently, the discoveries of prehistoric rock art have become more common. With these discoveries comes a single giant one — all these drawing and engravings map the prehistoric peoples’ cosmological world.
Researchers led by University of Tennessee, Knoxville, anthropology professor Jan Simek proposed that rock art changed the natural landscape to reflect a three-dimensional universe central to the religion of the prehistoric Mississippian period.
“Our findings provide a window into what Native American societies were like beginning more than 6,000 years ago,” said Simek.
— PTI
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