Sea-corroded violin believed to have played as Titanic sank sells for nearly $1.45M at auction

LONDON – A violin believed to have played on the Titanic before the doomed vessel sank beneath the waves has sold for 900,000 pounds (some $1.45 million) at auction.

An unidentified bidder on Saturday won the violin, whose metal fixtures appear corroded by seawater and is no longer playable. It is thought to have belonged to bandmaster Wallace Hartley, who was among the disaster’s more than 1,500 victims.

Auctioneer Henry Aldridge and Son says the violin has been subject to numerous tests to check its authenticity since it was discovered in 2006. It said earlier this year that the violin was Hartley’s “beyond reasonable doubt.”

The German-made violin was a gift from Hartley’s fiancee Maria Robinson, and was engraved with the words “For Wallace on the occasion of our engagement from Maria.”