Regardless of the political assessment of Karl Marx's theory, one thing is certain: he predicted the collapse of the Vendome column long before it happened. This prediction was given by him in the political pamphlet Le 18 Brumaire de Louis Bonaparte of 1852. This pamphlet, sharply critical of the political figure of Napoleon III, ends with the words: "But if the Imperial mantle finally falls on the shoulders of Louis Bonaparte, the bronze statue of Napoleon will fall from the height of the Vendome column".