Kathmandu. A gold pocket watch belonging to a man who died in the Titanic crash has been sold at an auction. The watch was sold for 1.78 million pounds (about Rs 33.25 crore).
Isidore Strauss and his wife, Ida, were among some 1,500 people who died when the Titanic hit an iceberg on April 14, 1912, en route from Southampton to New York. Their bodies were recovered from the Atlantic a few days after the crash and their belongings included an 18-karat gold Jules Jurgensen pocket watch.
The watch was preserved in the Strauss family and sold on Saturday to Henry Aldridge & Son Oxniers in Devises, Wiltshire.
Strauss was an American businessman, politician, and co-owner of Macy’s department store in New York. After the accident, his wife is believed to have refused to make room in the lifeboat. Because she did not want to leave her husband and said that she would die with him.
Ida Strauss’s body was never found. Ida Strauss posted a letter written on Titanic stationery as she boarded the ship. The letter was sold at auction for £100,000 (about Rs 1.87 crore).
The auction of Titanic memorabilia has raised a total of £30 million.
