Bảo Đại handed his gold seal to the revolution in 1945, sued his own son for it in France, and his widow's heirs sold it for 6.1 million euros

Emperor Minh Mạng had the seal Hoàng đế chi bảo cast in solid gold in 1823. It weighs 10.78 kg. On 30 August 1945 Bảo Đại read his abdication at Huế and handed the seal and a jewelled sword to the Viet Minh envoy Trần Huy Liệu. During the war with France the seal disappeared. On 28 February 1952 French soldiers digging a post at Nghĩa Đô outside Hanoi found a 20-litre kerosene can holding a gold seal and a sword broken in two. The French handed them back to Bảo Đại's side, and his consort Mộng Điệp received them. In 1953 she took them to France and gave them to Empress Nam Phương and Crown Prince Bảo Long. After Bảo Đại married Monique Baudot, he sued Bảo Long for the seal and sword. The court gave the seal to the father and the sword to the son. Bảo Đại died in Paris in 1997. His will left his property in France, the seal included, to Monique. She died in 2021. Her heirs consigned the seal to the Paris auction house Millon for a sale on 31 October 2022. Vietnam's government asked to bring it home, and Millon withdrew it. In February 2023 Nguyễn Thế Hồng, director of a private royal museum in Bắc Ninh, signed to buy it for 6.1 million euros. It was handed over at Vietnam's embassy in Paris on 16 November 2023 and reached Vietnam on 18 November. The sword's location is not in the record.