A battle sabre believed to have been commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte and kept in Germany for over 200 years is to be auctioned in Paris.
The richly decorated steel and gold sabre, which will go under the hammer at the Drouot auction house on Thursday, is estimated to be worth between €500,000 and €800,000 ($540,000-$870,000).
According to the auction house, the sabre was probably commissioned by Napoleon for his brother-in-law, Joachim Murat, a marshal and grand admiral.
The Napoleonic-era sabre, with its special decoration and gold fittings, is considered very rare.
Only one other similar example is said to exist, currently in the collections of the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. That sabre was a gift to Prince Eugène de Beauharnais, Napoleon's stepson, whom he later adopted.
After the defeat of Napoleon's forces at Waterloo in 1815, Paris was occupied by allied forces of the Seventh Coalition.
It appears likely that the sabre was part of the loot taken by Prussian forces when they plundered Paris during the occupation, which would explain the sabre's reappearance in Germany.