NCIE
NCIE
The watch of the last emperor of China was sold at an auction for a record 6.2 million dollars
A watch belonging to the last emperor of China's Qing Dynasty has sold for a record HK$49 million (US$6.2 million) at a Hong Kong auction. This is reported by Reuters.
The Swiss company Patek Philippe watch was bought by a Hong Kong collector through a phone call.
Thomas Perazzi, head of watches at Phillips Asia auction house, told Reuters it was the highest price ever paid for a wristwatch owned by an emperor.
According to the auction house, Emperor Pu Yi gave the watch to his Russian translator when he was imprisoned by the Soviet Union.
In 2017, a Patek Philippe watch owned by the last emperor of Ethiopia sold for $2.7 million, and a Rolex watch owned by the last emperor of Vietnam sold for $5 million.
The last emperor of China, Pu Yi, came to power at the age of 2 in 1908, but had to abdicate in 1912. By the 1930s, he had become emperor of the puppet state of Manzhou-go created by the Japanese military regime. After Japan's defeat in World War II in 1945, Pu Yi was captured by the Soviet Red Army and spent 5 years as a prisoner of war in Khabarovsk.
The auction house, in collaboration with various experts, has spent three years researching the history of the watch and verifying its provenance.
