A letter from Charlotte Corday, who murdered Marat, sold for 215,000 euros at auction

A letter explaining his gesture, found on Charlotte Corday just after the assassination of the revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat, was sold for 215,000 euros (270,900 with costs) in Versailles, the Osenat auction house said on Sunday. The happy new owner is the Direction du patrimoine et de la culture de Normandie.

This lot, which was estimated between 80,000 and 100,000 euros, is sold “subject to obtaining a final decision concerning the status of this manuscript. In the meantime, the document remains in sequestration in the safe of our study”, specifies Osenat. This three-page document, entitled "Address to French friends of law and peace", is presented by the auction house as "the political testament that she wrote the day before her murderous act".

“Acquired by the Directorate of Heritage and Culture of Normandy”, it will join “the headquarters of the Normandy region in the former Abbaye aux Dames in the city of Caen”, further details Osenat. This assassination, on July 13, 1793, is remembered, thanks in particular to David's painting. Charlotte Corday, originally from Normandy, was only 24 when she perpetrated this murder, for which she was guillotined.

This document was found on her during her search upon her arrival in prison. The young woman deplores the deviation of the revolutionary ideals to which she had adhered and the brutality of power. Marat is for her a symbol of it, whom she describes as "the vilest of villains, (...) whose name alone presents the image of all crimes".

This letter, removed from the indictment against Charlotte Corday, has passed through the hands of various private collectors since the beginning of the 19th century. The president of the Normandy region Hervé Morin, his counterpart from the Calvados department Jean-Léonce Dupont and the mayor of Caen Joël Bruneau, welcomed their acquisition.

"This Norman from Caen, a center of Girondism during the French Revolution, had landed in Paris in July 1793 with the aim of assassinating Marat", recall the three Norman leaders in a joint press release. "230 years later, this major piece of the history of the Revolution and the fight against Terror will return to its land of origin, Normandy", they conclude.