Titanic violin auctioned for US$1.45m
Print Edition
The violin played by the bandmaster of the Titanic to calm passengers as it sank sold at auction for 900,000 UK pounds (US$1.45 million) yesterday, a world record fee for memorabilia from the doomed liner.
The instrument, found strapped to the body of Wallace Hartley after he drowned along with 1,500 others in the disaster in 1912, was sold at Titanic specialist auctioneers Henry Aldridge and Son in Devizes, southwest England.
The instrument carries an inscription from the 33-year-old’s fiancee Maria Robinson to mark their engagement and was on sale with its leather luggage case, initialed W.H.H, in which it was found.
For decades it was believed lost but was found in the attic of a house in northwest England in 2006, prompting debate about its authenticity, which experts recently resolved.
It took just 10 minutes to sell it for its final price.
Hartley’s band played the hymn “Nearer, My God, To Thee” to try to calm passengers while they climbed into lifeboats as the Titanic sank beneath the icy waves in the North Atlantic on April 15, 1912, after hitting an iceberg.
Hartley and his seven fellow band members all died after choosing to play on.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
