A portrait of an 18th-century Corsican independence leader who inspired a young Napoleon Bonaparte will go to auction on Saturday.
Pascal Paoli led the first independent Corsican republic, and later marshalled armed resistance to French troops during their 1768 invasion, serving as a model for Napoleon’s own short-lived stint as a Corsican patriot.
Paoli — who authored a 1755 constitution that later influenced US revolutionaries — was not properly identified as the subject of Sir William Beechey’s portrait when it was originally sold into private hands in 1994, meaning that this week, Corsicans will finally have a chance to acquaint themselves with “one of the most noble faces of European liberty” before it’s sold once again, the auctioneer told The Guardian.