ABSTRACT
On 19 October 2013 the auction house Henry Aldridge & Son sold a violin rescued from the Titanic for more than $1.7 million. The violin is said to have been played to calm the passengers while the cruise ship was sinking. In its time, what was an inexpensive violin has today reached that of an economically important violin by acquiring what has been named ‘prosthetic memory’, a process where scenes shown to the public by the media are assimilated as personal experience of events they themselves did not live. This chapter will explore the process on how a common object has gained prestige both as cultural heritage and allure as a treasure by recognition of various values by different stakeholders: an historical value by the museum, an emotional value by the media and an economic value by the auction market.
