Napoleons tomb may contain someone elses remains

Napoleon Bonapartes tomb in Paris could possibly contain the remains of another man, a prominent Historian and Napoleonic conspiracy theorist has claimed.

London, Aug 22 : Napoleon Bonaparte's tomb in Paris could possibly contain the remains of another man, a prominent Historian and Napoleonic conspiracy theorist has claimed.

Bruno Roy-Henry has said that an 1815 painting of the French emperor on his way to exile shows a scar of the left side of his face, while no such scar exists on any French portrait or Napoleon's official death mask, which is on display at the Army Museum at Invalides, near his tomb on the Left Bank.

The painting of Napoleon on HMS Bellerophon by Charles Locke Eastlake is the only portrait of the emperor painted from life by a British artist. The work hangs in the National Maritime Museum, in Greenwich, London.

Roy-Henry said that an identical scar appears on another death-mask, which was in the possession of the Royal United Services Institute and sold by Sotheby's to an anonymous American buyer in 2004.

He said it was possible that the British spirited away the original body of the French Emperor and replaced him with Jean-Baptiste Cipriani, his ma�tre-d'hotel on Saint Helena.

"The scar on the English picture is a powerful clue to its authenticity. The English mask shows the true face of the emperor but the [Paris] Army Museum refuses to accept reality. It would be better if the false mask in the Invalides were removed quickly from public view," The Times quoted Roy-Henry as saying.

ANI