Rare memorabilia of former French Emperor Napoleon 1st, including a lock of hair cut from his head after he died in exile in 1821 on the remote island of St. Helena, have fetched 140,000 New Zealand dollars ($97,000) at auction. Bidders from England, France, Lithuania, Hong Kong and the United States joined the auction by phone for the 40 items - sold by a New Zealand family, descendants of Denzil Ibbetson, commissionary officer on St. Helena during Napoleon's incarceration on the remote island. The highest price, NZ$21,000 ($14,500) was paid for a lithograph and watercolor death bed sketch of Napoleon by Ibbetson, Art+Object auction house managing director Hamish Coney, said Wednesday. A lock of hair Ibbetson cut from the former emperor's head fetched NZ$19,000 ($13,100) from a private collector in London who did not want to be identified, he said.
