Montevideo, (EFE).- A letter written on board the RMS Titanic by a Uruguayan passenger and sent from Ireland to his brother on April 11, 1912 will be auctioned in Montevideo with a base price of $12,000.
The piece is part of an auction of some 800 lots of Creole silverware, military and historical documents that will be auctioned in person and online by the Zorrilla company between Friday, June 30 and Saturday, July 1.
Written on White Star Line company letterhead and watermark, the letter contains two pages with a moisture stain and a note later written by its recipient that says: “Last letter my dear brother Ramón wrote. Three days after this, he sank the Titanic, perishing by drowning.
Three generations after the Titanic
Sebastián Zorrilla, from Zorrilla Subastas, told EFE that until now the piece had been in the hands of the family and that it passed through three generations.
“There is always someone in families who decides to freeze history in an auction and have this piece that they treasure for a while and that we treasure momentarily end up in the hands of a collector or a museum,” he explained.
On the other hand, he pointed out that the news that the letter was going to be auctioned caused him to be contacted by many collectors from different parts of the world and assured that this “has aroused a lot of interest.”
Asked about the price that could be paid for the Titanic letter, he replied: “We calculate a value of between 15,000 and 20,000 dollars. It has a starting base of $12,000. The price is unpredictable, the market will say a little. It is a lot difficult to evaluate because they are unique pieces”.
$12,000 base price
He said that he estimates that “many collectors are going to bid”, although he stressed that museums also want to have this type of piece, especially considering that he does not believe that there are many letters written in Spanish.
In the letter, the Uruguayan Ramón Artagaveytia Gómez told his brother that he wanted to reach North America and that he was “seduced” by the size of the Titanic, which he described as a “45,000-ton steamer” that was making its first voyage.
“When we approached yesterday on the steamer it was cool as the Río de la Plata, and when I looked up I had the effect of being at the foot of a five-story house. Upon entering there were about 50 waiters. One takes my bags, and by elevator (there are 3) we go up to my floor on deck B. The dining room is on deck D and there are others below,” the letter reads.
Santiago Carbone