The mask was cast from a mold taken shortly after Napoleon’s death, according to New Orleans gallery M.S. Rau Antiques, which is selling the unusual artifact for $34,500.

However, Mr. Henry-Roy said he believes the "London" mask, which was sold in 2004 by a New York auction house for $50,000 to an unknown buyer, is the real death mask.

Advocate staff photo by BILL FEIG -- Smiling, Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne poses "Napoleon Style" next to Napoleon's death mask which was transferred from the Cabildo to the Capitol Park Museum temporarily.

By this point, Napoleon had been deceased for longer than was usual when making death masks, so his face is immortalised in its deathly state – with sunken eyes and hollowed cheeks.

At first the making of a death mask seemed an impossible task—plaster was hard to come by on St. Helena—but on May 7 a mold was cast by English surgeon Francis Burton and/or Napoleon's ...

9.5 x 8.5 x 14 in. (24.1 x 21.6 x 35.6 cm.) This captivating bronze death mask of the Emperor Napoleon I is cast from the mold created by Dr. Francesco Antommarchi, Napoleon’s personal physician and ...

He is one of history's most controversial figures. To his detractors he was the anti-Christ. To his supporters he gave birth to modern Western civilization. But 186 years after his death, scholars ...

The Western world was once obsessed with these macabre memorials. *This article contains details and images that some readers might find distressing. On 7 May 1821, two doctors were engrossed in a ...

The 19th Century. Back on the island of Saint Helena, the two doctors still needed to make Napoleon's death mask – and they still couldn't find any fresh plaster.