The violin played by the bandmaster of the Titanic as the liner sank beneath the waves is to go on display at a museum marking the tragedy in Northern Ireland, officials said on Monday.
The instrument belonging to Wallace Hartley was found strapped to his body after he drowned with some 1,500 others on board the supposedly unsinkable ship in 1912. It has an inscription on the back from the 34-year-old’s fiancee to mark their engagement.
For decades the rosewood violin was believed lost but it was found in the attic of a house in northwest England in 2006. It will now be displayed at the Titanic Belfast exhibition from September 18 until October 13 before it goes to auction in Wiltshire, southwest England on October 19.