Violin played by Titanic musician is auctioned for 3 million reais

Cracked, stained and with only two strings, the violin that supposedly belonged to Wallace Hartley - the band leader who played to entertain Titanic passengers during the wreck - was sold last week for a staggering £ 900, 000, which is equivalent to 3.1 million reais at today's price.

The big surprise is that it seemed that Hartley's violin was lost to the bottom of the sea, as the musician drowned along with 1, 500 more people in the disaster that occurred on April 15, 1912. However, in 2006, an anonymous found the instrument inside a leather case in the attic of his mother's house.

Experts doubted the violin's authenticity, claiming the object would not survive after being submerged in the sea for so long. To be sure, historians, scientists, forensic specialists, auctioneers of Titanic items, and Wallace Hartley's biographer met and spent seven years examining the object and researching its history before confirming the piece's authenticity.

The millionaire auction

Hartley's violin was purchased by a Briton who collects Titanic objects. With the increase in the auction house's administrative fees, the collector disbursed a total of £ 1.1 million to reach £ 3.8 million.

Prior to the auction of this violin, the record sales of Titanic items had previously belonged to the map of the ship that was used in the wreck investigation. This map was bought in 2011 for 220, 000 pounds, or something like 776, 000 reais if the sale was made today.

Already the most expensive violin ever sold in the world was a Stradivarius dating from 1721 and called “Lady Blunt”. The play reached an impressive value of 9.8 million pounds, or more than 34 million reais, and was also traded in 2011.