Sold for 8.1 Billion Won, More Than Double the Initial Estimate
Seemingly Handed Over to Russian Interpreter During Detention Camp Life
The luxury wristwatch worn by Puyi, the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, was auctioned for 8.1 billion KRW. This amount exceeded twice the expected auction price.
According to foreign media reports including AFP on the 23rd (local time), the luxury wristwatch owned by Puyi was sold for $6.2 million (approximately 8.1 billion KRW), including fees, at the Phillips Asia branch auction in Hong Kong.
The official name of the watch is 'Patek Philippe Reference 96 Quantieme Lune.' Initially, the watch was expected to be sold for about $3 million (approximately 4 billion KRW), but after a fierce bidding competition lasting five minutes, the price reached $5.1 million. Including fees, the final price was $6.2 million, more than double the expected price.
Phillips stated, "We investigated the history and verified the provenance of this watch for three years," adding, "It is the highest price ever achieved for a watch of the same model."
The owner of the watch, Puyi, was the last emperor of China's Qing Dynasty. It is reported that even after his abdication, he personally kept the watch.
After returning from emperor to "ordinary citizen," Puyi was transferred to the Soviet war criminal camp in Khabarovsk and imprisoned for five years. It is presumed that during this time, he entrusted the watch to the Russian interpreter Georgy Perkov.
Meanwhile, Puyi ascended the throne at the age of three in 1908. However, he abdicated around the age of eight in 1912 due to the Xinhai Revolution. In 1924, he escaped Beijing and allied with the Japanese Empire, becoming the emperor of Manchukuo, a puppet state of Imperial Japan at the time.
However, after the fall of Imperial Japan in 1945, he was arrested by the Soviet Union and spent five years as a prisoner in a war criminal camp. Afterwards, he returned to China to face an official war crimes trial.
About ten years after returning to China, he was pardoned and worked at the Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, living the rest of his life as a civilian. The film depicting his life, "The Last Emperor," won an Oscar in 1987.
Meanwhile, the auction also featured a paper fan containing a self-written poem titled "Dedicated to my comrade Permyakov," which Puyi wrote. The fan was sold for $78,000 (approximately 100 million KRW), six times higher than the expected price.
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