Emerald ring sells for $1.2 million at auction!
The Emerald Recovered From 400-Year-Old Shipwreck Raises $1.2 Million For Ukraine At Auction. All proceeds set to be donated to humanitarian efforts in Ukraine.
Late Perdue Farms CEO Frank Perdue was an early on member with Mel Fisher and was given some of the treasure, and while he donated most of his share, he kept an emerald that he later had cut for the engagement ring he used to propose to his wife Mitzi in 1988.
Mitzi Perdue was selling the ring in order to give the proceeds to humanitarian groups helping Ukraine, according to Sotheby’s, saying her late husband would “share my desire to help those in dire need” (Frank Perdue died in 2005).
The ring sold to an anonymous buyer for far more than expected, more than 15 times as much as the $70,000 high-end estimate of the auction house.