During an auction in Hong Kong, a Patek Philippe watch was sold for more than five million dollars, and it belonged to the last emperors of the Qing dynasty that ruled the last Chinese empire.
Sold for more than five million dollars during an auction held Tuesday in Hong Kong, a Patek Philippe watch that was the last emperor of China, Puyi.
The watch was valued at three million dollars, but the five-minute bids during the auction held by the British “Phillips” house settled on one of the buyers for 40 million Hong Kong dollars (equivalent to 5.1 million US dollars), and the total price reached, including the commission. to $6.2 million.
This watch with reference 96 (the Swiss Maison’s first model to bear a reference code) and lunar calendar and decorated with a symbol representing a phase of the moon belonged to Esin Jiuru Puyi, the last emperor of the Qing dynasty, the last Chinese empire.
The life of Puyi, who was crowned emperor in 1908, inspired Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Last Emperor,” which won nine Academy Awards in 1988, most notably in the Best Picture category. And the Japanese placed him more than 20 years at the head of the puppet state they set up in Manchuria, after they invaded it in the early 1930s.
He was captured by the Soviet forces in 1945 after Japan’s defeat in World War II, and he was placed in a Soviet camp. And the “Phillips” house confirmed that it had documents proving that the watch was in the possession of Puyi in detention.
His nephew Esin Gioro Yuyuan said that the watch was a “personal item” of the deposed emperor and he left it to his interpreter Georgy Permyakov when he left prison.
Russell Working, a journalist who interviewed Permyakov more than 20 years ago, noted that the old man knew nothing of the watch’s value when he pulled it out of his drawer. Working, who was part of the auction house’s research team, added, “Its reappearance after all these years seemed like a treasure chest being carried ashore by the waves.”
Thomas Perazzi, head of the watch division at Philips House in Asia, said that the price at which this watch was sold is the highest in an auction for a Patek Philippe watch bearing reference code 96.
He added that “only three copies” of this series of watches are still available in the world today.
A red paper fan with Puyi’s poem “Dedicated to My Comrade Primyakov” inscribed on it sold for more than $77,800, six times the estimated price.
