Titanic violin set to fetch record price

The violin played by the bandmaster of the Titanic as it sank beneath the waves is expected to fetch a world record fee for memorabilia from the doomed liner when it goes on sale Saturday. The instrument belonging to Wallace Hartley was found strapped to his body after he drowned with his seven bandmates and some 1,500 others on board the supposedly unsinkable ship in 1912.
The violin has a reserve price of £200,000 to £300,000 ($323,000 to $485,000, 236,000 to 354,000 euros) but is expected to fetch as much as £400,000 ($646,000, 472,000 euros) when it goes on sale at Titanic specialist auctioneers Henry Aldridge and Son in Devizes, south-west England. The instrument carries an inscription from the 33-year-old's fiancee Maria Robinson to mark their engagement. It is on sale with its leather luggage case initialled W.H.H.