A violin thought to have belonged to Titanic bandmaster Wallace Hartley and played while the ship sank was auctioned Saturday for more than 1 million pounds ($1.6 million), the Associated Press reports.
The record-making price tag for a Titanic artifact “may never get beaten,” said a Titanic memorabilia collector at the auction in England.
The German-made violin, now corroded and unplayable, was a gift from Hartley’s fiancee and was engraved with the words: “For Wallace on the occasion of our engagement from Maria.” The buyer, who called in the bid, wishes to remain anonymous.