'Titanic' violin sells for $1.5m

Wallace Hartley has become part of the ship's legend after leading his fellow musicians in playing as the doomed vessel went down, most famously the hymn Nearer My God To Thee.

Hartley and his seven fellow band members all died in the tragedy in 1912, in which 1500 people died after the ship hit an iceberg.

His violin, which had been a gift from his fiancee Maria Robinson, was apparently found in a case strapped to his body when it was recovered from the icy Atlantic waters.

Its re-emergence in 2006, when it was reportedly discovered in an attic in Yorkshire, prompted heated debate over its authenticity.

Titanic specialist auctioneers Henry Aldridge and Son insist nearly seven subsequent years of research and tests have proved it to be the genuine article.

Now the violin - accompanied by a leather luggage case initialled W. H.H. - went under the hammer with a host of otheritems from the ship at the public auction in Devizes in Wiltshire.

The violin had a reserve price of between STG200,000 and STG300,000 and was expected to reach as much as STG400,000 - however no one expected the instrument to fetch nearly STG1 
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