"Bought by Father 50 Years Ago for 4 Million Won"… American Woman Possessing Part of Napoleon's Body

Napoleon's Genitalia Auctioned 47 Years Ago
Famous People's Body Parts Preserved in Museums Worldwide

A story has emerged about a woman who possesses a part of the body of Napoleon Bonaparte (Napoleon I), Emperor of the First French Empire. On the 25th (local time), the New York Post reported on an item owned by Evan Latimer (75), who lives in Englewood, New Jersey, USA. Evan Latimer inherited a specimen of Napoleon I's genitalia from her father, Dr. John K. Latimer, who passed away in 2007.

Evan Latimer inherited a specimen of Napoleon I's genitalia from his father, Dr. John K. Latimer, who passed away in 2007.
[Photo by New York Post]

Dr. Latimer, a urology professor at Columbia University, won the specimen of Napoleon's genitalia at a fierce auction in Paris in 1977 for $3,000 (about 4.1 million KRW) and kept it at home. Evan Latimer stated, "My father kept the box containing Napoleon's genital specimen under his desk and never showed it to anyone." It is also reported that Evan Latimer has kept the relic private.

Tony Perrottet, a New York author who wrote "Napoleon's Soldiers: Unraveling 2,500 Years of History," published in 2008, described that Francesco Autommarchi, Napoleon's personal physician, cut off a penis about 3.8 cm long during an autopsy in front of 17 witnesses. This genitalia was part of the collection owned by Abb? Anges Paul Vignali, the priest who conducted Napoleon's last rites, and was purchased in 1924 by American rare book dealer A.S.W. Rosenbach. It was one of the relics exhibited at the French Institute in Manhattan in 1927.

Later, it was auctioned in Paris in 1977, and Evan Latimer's father purchased it. A writer who saw it in person thanks to Evan Latimer's consideration ten years ago claimed, "It was completely naturally dried for 200 years and looked like a baby's finger."

Parts of deceased famous people's bodies are kept in museums worldwide, and some occasionally appear on the auction market. Beethoven's ear bone is kept at the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies at San Jose State University in California, Lincoln's skull fragment is at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington D.C., and Galileo Galilei's finger is preserved at the Museum of the History of Science in Florence, Italy. Thomas Edison's last breath is contained in a glass tube at the Henry Ford Museum in Michigan, and Albert Einstein's brain is kept at the M?tter Museum in Philadelphia.