A life jacket belonging to a Titanic survivor was sold this Saturday (18) at an auction in England for 670 thousand pounds, more than 770 thousand euros, reports the Spanish news agency, EFE.
The vest had a starting price of 350 thousand pounds, more than 402 thousand eurosand was sold at an auction that took place at Henry Aldridge & Son, in the county of Wiltshire, in southwest England.
The piece, worn by first class passenger Laura Mabel Francatelli when she boarded lifeboat number 1, was purchased by a buyer from the United States who bid by telephone but whose identity was not revealed.
It is the only life jacket from a survivor of the liner sunk in 192 that was put up for auction, and was expected to arouse great interest among collectors.
The piece has twelve canvas pockets filled with cork and is autographed by eight other survivors of the boat, including Francatelli herself. The vest was in the possession of the survivor’s family before being acquired by a private collector 20 years ago and displayed in museums in the US and Europe.
The auction took place more than a century after the tragic episode of the Titanic, in the early hours of April 14, 1912, when the ship collided with an iceberg in the North Atlantic, causing the death of 1,500 people and leaving around 700 survivors.
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