Rare piece: The Patek Philippe Ref 96 Quantieme Lune timepiece once owned by Puyi, the Chinese Qing dynasty’s last emperor (left), on display in Hong Kong. — AFP
Hong Kong: A Patek Philippe wristwatch once owned by China’s last emperor has sold for more than US$6mil at auction in Hong Kong.
The Ref 96 Quantieme Lune timepiece, which boasts a crown-like moon phase, originally belonged to Aisin-Gioro Puyi, the final monarch of the Chinese Qing dynasty.
Emperor at the age of two in 1908, Puyi was immortalised by Bernardo Bertolucci’s Oscar-winning film The Last Emperor, but left a mixed legacy.
More than 20 years after being forced to abdicate, he was installed as the puppet leader of Japanese-occupied Manchuria, before he was captured in 1945 after the fall of Japan and taken to a Soviet prison camp.
British auction house Phillips said it had documentation that showed Puyi had brought the watch with him to the camp.
It was expected to fetch about US$3mil (RM13.7mil) but, after about five minutes of spirited bidding, it was sold for HK$40mil (RM23.3mil). With the buyer’s premium fee, the total price came to about US$6.2mil (RM28.3mil).
According to the memoir of Puyi’s nephew Aisin-Gioro Yuyuan, the watch was a “personal item” of the deposed emperor, who passed it to his Russian interpreter Georgy Permyakov for safe-keeping when he left the prison camp. — AFP
