At the auction organized by Phillips Asia, the Patek Philip brand wristwatch was paid a starting price of well over $3 million.
The unnamed buyer got the watch with a final bid of $5.1 million (Hong Kong $40 million), the highest price paid for a dynasty watch in the past.
Previously, a Rolex watch owned by Bao Dai, the last Emperor of Vietnam, was sold for $5 million, and a Patek Philip watch by Haile Selassie, the last Emperor of Ethiopia, was sold for $2.9 million.
“The Last Emperor”
Puyi, the last Emperor of China, whose life is the subject of the movie “The Last Emperor” by Italian film director Bernardo Bertolucci, ascended to the throne at the age of 3 in 1908, after the death of his uncle, and was deposed after the 1911 Revolution and the establishment of the Republic of China.
Continuing to live in the Imperial Palace in Beijing for 13 more years after losing his reign, Puyi took refuge in the invaders during Japan’s occupation of China, was declared “Chinese President” by the Japanese in 1932, and was a puppet established by the Japanese in Manchuria in 1937. the state was brought to Mançukuo.
Puyi, who was captured by Soviet Union forces after Japan’s defeat in World War II, was extradited to the newly established People’s Republic of China in 1950 to be tried as a war criminal.
After being pardoned in 1959, Puyi worked as a laborer in the machine repair shop of the botanical park, formerly the imperial property, in Beijing until his death in 1967.
It is stated that the watch sold at auction was gifted to Puyi by his translator while he was a prisoner of war in the Soviet Union.