Golden watch of the richest passenger on the Titanic sold at a British auction for a record sum
At the British auction house Henry Aldridge & Son, the golden watch belonging to the wealthiest passenger on the Titanic was sold. A private collector bid a record-breaking £1.175 million ($1.48 million) for the item salvaged from the sunken ship.
Up for auction were golden pocket watches by Waltham. Their original owner was the 47-year-old passenger of the famous Titanic, businessman John Jacob Astor, whose body was found seven days after the shipwreck in 1912.
According to Bloomberg, citing representatives of the auction platform Henry Aldridge & Son, the amount for which an anonymous enthusiast purchased the watch became the highest in the history of Titanic-related sales. John Jacob Astor's watch surpassed the previous auction record held by a violin. The musical instrument, played as the ship went under, was acquired for £1.1 million ($1.4 million).
John Jacob Astor was the wealthiest passenger on the Titanic. His fortune at the time exceeded $87 million. He was aboard the Titanic with his wife, Madeleine, who managed to survive the disaster: at the last moment, she was transferred to a lifeboat.
The businessman's body was found on April 22, along with the engraved Waltham golden watch.
You may also be interested in:
- Labor Exploitation Victims Discovered in Cyprus
- Cyprus to Establish Food Safety Authority
- Mediterranean Women's Conference Launches in Nicosia
- A resident of Limassol fell victim to an online scam, losing 135,000 euros in a scheme involving "highly profitable stocks."
- Due to Global Climate Change, Cyprus Will Experience More Dust