Patrick Gruhn, former senior exec at now bankrupt FTX, buys Titanic memorabilia worth $1.5 M

FTX Europe’s former head, Patrick Gruhn recently paid almost $1.5 million at auction on a Titanic memorabilia. This memorabilia was a piece of gold pocket watch recovered from the Titanic’s wealthiest passenger’s body.

The history of this memorabilia

This watch was owned by John Jacob Astor IV, an American real estate tycoon, who was returning from his honeymoon in Europe with Madeleine Astor, his pregnant wife.

As the Titanic was hit in 1912 by an iceberg, Astor was told by an officer that until all the women and children were safe, he couldn’t join them on a lifeboat. After a week, his body, along with his belongings was found in the water. Some of his belongings were a 14-karat gold watch, diamond and gold cuff links, a gold pencil, and a diamond ring.

Patrick used money from his companies’ sale for the purchase of this watch for his wife, Maren Gruhn, and they planned on displaying this watch in museums.

FTX’s collapse

In July last year, the FTX bankruptcy estate petitioned a U.S. bankruptcy court to award restitution of over $323.5 million from FTX’s Europe leadership. Gruhn and others afterwards agreed to repurchase FTX’s European assets for almost $33 million. He also mentioned he was unaware of the FTX fraud prior its collapse.

After the collapse of FTX in November 2022, Patrick relocated to Oregon. He now operates a German Catholic TV network from there and is trying to establish a crypto derivatives exchange in Europe.

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