Crucifix which was placed on Napoleon’s body during his lying-in-state

This cross was the one which was placed on Napoleon’s body, as depicted in many of the drawings made at the scene the day after his death and also in later imagined representations such as that by Mauzaisse (1843) showing the Emperor’s corpse dressed in his chasseur colonel uniform and bicorn hat lying on his camp-bed.

Abbé Vignali was supposed to give this crucifix and all the other objects of devotion to the Duke of Reichstadt, Napoleon’s legitimate son. But like all the objects left to him, it would never reach him. After many ups and downs, the set of religious objects was recovered by the Bonaparte family, then donated to the Chateau de Malmaison by the Prince and Princess Napoleon in 1979.