A gold pocket watch found inside the body of the richest passenger on the Titanic was purchased by Patrick Gruhn, the former chairman of FTX Europe, for about $1.5 million, “the largest sum ever spent at auction on a piece of Titanic memorabilia,” according to The Wall Street Journal.
John Jacob Astor IV, an American real estate tycoon, was returning from a honeymoon in Europe with his expectant wife, Madeleine Astor, when he owned the watch. When the Titanic sank in 1912, an officer informed Astor that he could not go to the lifeboat with his wife until all of the ladies and children were safely on board.
Astor’s belongings, including a 14-karat “Gold watch, cuff links gold and diamond, diamond ring,” and a “gold pencil,” were discovered in the ocean a week after his body was discovered there, according to the article.
Gruhn claimed that he bought the watch for his wife, Maren Gruhn, using proceeds from the sale of his businesses, and that they intended to exhibit the watch in museums.
A U.S. bankruptcy court was urged by the FTX bankruptcy estate in July 2023 to grant recovery of about $323.5 million from FTX’s European leadership. Gruhn and others later consented to pay roughly $33 million to repurchase FTX’s European assets as part of a settlement. Grohn added that he was unaware of the FTX scam prior to its collapse.
Since the FTX collapse in Nov. 2022, Gruhn has moved to Oregon, from where he runs a German Catholic TV network and is attempting to build a crypto derivatives exchange in Europe.