8 years ago
Sunday, October 20, 2013
The Violin Found in The Titanic Sold for £900,000
A regular violin doesn't cost up to £50, compare it to £900,000 that's too extreme. The violin reputedly played by the Titanic's bandmaster as the ill-fated liner sank, broke a world record today when it sold for £900,000.
Wallace Hartley has become part of the ship's legend after leading his fellow musicians in playing as the doomed vessel went down, most famously the hymn Nearer My God To Thee.
Hartley and his seven fellow band members all died in the tragedy in 1912, in which 1,500 people were killed after the ship hit an iceberg.
His violin, which had been a gift from his fiancee Maria Robinson, was apparently found in a case strapped to his body when it was recovered from the icy Atlantic waters.
Its re-emergence in 2006, when it was reportedly discovered in an attic in Yorkshire, prompted heated debate over its authenticity.
Titanic specialist auctioneers Henry Aldridge and Son insist nearly seven subsequent years of research and tests have proved it to be the genuine article.
Now the violin - accompanied by a leather luggage case initialled W. H.H. - went under the hammer with a host of other items from the ship at the public auction in Devizes, Wiltshire.
The violin had a reserve price of between £200,000 and £300,000 and was expected to reach as much as £400,000 - however no one expected the instrument to fetch nearly £1 million.
Peter Boyd-Smith, a Titanic historian and seller of the ship's memorabilia, said he believed the violin had been bought by a British collector.
"I have been to many, many auctions but I have never seen one like this," he said.
"£900,000 for a violin? Absolutely incredible. It's staying in the UK and I think it is a private collector - not too sure.
"It's a world record for a Titanic artefact. The only other items that are probably worth that kind of money are the items salvaged from RMS Titanic if they are ever put up for sale and those are in the exhibitions that go around America and Europe.
"It may never get beaten."
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