A pocket watch recovered from a passenger who died on the Titanic was sold on Saturday at Heritage Auctions for $57,500, the Associated Press reported.
According to the auction house, the watch once belonged to passenger Sinai Kantor, a Russian immigrant who tragically died in the Titanic sinking of 1912 when he was only 34 years old. His body was recovered and buried in New York. Reports say that his wife, Miriam, was able to get into a lifeboat.
Heritage Auctions said on its website that the Legal Aid Society was able to locate Kantor’s clothing, along with the watch, Russian passport, notebook, assortment of money from Russia, Germany, and England, wallets, telescope, and corkscrew.
The unique timepiece is a three-inch, Swiss-made watch with Hebrew numerals on the dial and an embossed design on the back of Moses holding the Ten Commandments. The watch was originally silver, but the plating has worn away to reveal the brass underneath.
One of Miriam and Sinai’s descendants sold the pocket watch, which was bought by John Miottel, a California museum owner who collects timepieces from the Titanic, the New York Post reported.
