A gold watch owned by the Titanic's richest passengers was recently sold at auction for £1.17 million – the equivalent of about R$7.47 million. The auction was held in the United Kingdom, according to the British house Henry Aldridge & Son. The information is from France Press agency.
The auction was won by a buyer from the United States, who exceeded the previous estimate of between 100,000 and 150,000 pounds sterling – approximately 614,000 to 921,000 riyals. This feat achieved a new record for an object related to the ship that sank in the waters of the North Atlantic Ocean, surpassing the number previously achieved in 2013.
The highlights of this auction were not limited to the aforementioned watch. In the same year, a violin was auctioned for 1.1 million pounds sterling (about 5.6 million Brazilian reals), while the case accompanying it was sold at the same event for 360 dollars. One thousand pounds (about 2.3 million Brazilian reals).
The watch in question, engraved with the initials JJA, was owned by American businessman John Jacob Astor, who boarded the Titanic on the night of April 15, 1912, at the age of 47. Astor is known as one of the world's richest people. At that time, men with an estimated fortune of $87 million died on board the ship, after helping his wife, Madeleine, into one of the lifeboats.
A week after the tragedy, Astor's body was found, and among his personal belongings was his 14-karat gold pocket watch.
The auction house said: “The watch was fully restored after it was returned to Colonel Astor’s family and taken by his son.”
Source: Redacao Terra
