The bas-relief Prince of Joinville Presenting the Coffin of Napoleon to Louis Philippe was sculpted by Francois Jouffroy (1806-1882).
Finally, in 1977 the penis, now described (among other things) as a maltreated strip of buckskin shoelace, was put up for bid on its own merits at an auction house in city. It was scooped up for $3,000 by one of the world’s most celebrated urologists, Dr. John K. Lattimer. Lattimer, who was professor emeritus and former chairman of urology at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons also collected other oddities including Hermann Goring’s cyanide ampoule and President Abraham Lincoln’s blood-stained collar. Lattimer died in 2007 at age 92. The task of cataloging Lattimer’s 3,000-piece collection of oddities fell into the hands of his daughter, Evan Lattimer, who lives in the family’s 30-room home in suburban Englewood, New Jersey. In 2008 she reportedly received a phone call from someone offering $100,000 for Napoleon’s purloined penis (she turned it down).
There have been cries to reunite Napoleon’s torso with the missing appendage but the task of opening up the multicasketed sarcophagus seems daunting.
Napoleon Bonaparte isn’t the only longtime resident of les Invalides. There are dozens of other military heroes enclosed in tombs, sarcophagi and vaults. There are also nine disembodied hearts whose bodies rest elsewhere.
The tomb of Napoleon’s older brother, Joseph Bonaparte (1768-1844), was designed by Alphonse Nicolas Crepinet, and placed in the Saint-Augustine Chapel.
The tomb of General Louis Hubert Gonzalve Lyautey (1854-1934) was designed by Albert Laprade and placed in the Saint-Gregory Chapel in 1963.
The tomb of Marshall Ferdinand Foch (1851-1929) was designed by Paul Landowksi and was placed in the Saint-Ambrose Chapel in 1937.
