Strange Journey	"No Rest for the Louis" June 15, 2004

• After he extracted it from Louis's body, doctor Philippe-Jean Pelletan placed the heart in a handkerchief and took it home where he preserved it in alcohol.
• Years later, a student of Dr. Pelletan stole the heart and kept it as a souvenir.
• Upon his deathbed, the student repented his sins and had his wife return the heart to the doctor, who then gave it to the Archbishop of Paris.
• The Archbishop's office was attacked in 1830 and the heart's container was shattered, but Dr. Pelletan's son retrieved the heart from the ransacked office.
• In 1814, the heart was sent to the Spanish branch of the Bourbon family.
• The Spanish Bourbons eventually returned the heart to France in 1975, where it was kept in a crystal case in the royal crypt of Saint Denis Basilica in Paris.
• In 2000, tissue was removed from the heart for DNA analysis.
• Tuesday June 8, 2004, the heart was formally placed with the remains of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette in the royal crypt of Saint Denis Basilica.

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© 2004 by the Archaeological Institute of America archive.archaeology.org/online/news/louis2a.html