NEW YORK, March 5 (UPI) -- A pocket watch from the Titanic owned by Anthony Marshall, convicted of conspiring to steal $60 million from his mother, Brook Astor, is fake, a collector says.
Marshall, 88, says his gold pocket watch, which he claims could sell for $1 million, was worn by his grandfather, John Jacob Astor IV, the night in 1912 Astor died aboard the Titanic, the New York Post reported Tuesday.
The timepiece exists, the Post said, but it was bought in 1997 by John Miottel, a West Coast real-estate developer and collector of ocean liner memorabilia, who said, "I had heard about somebody who was claiming to have the Astor watch from the Titanic. He has a different watch."
Marshall, free while appealing his one- to –three-year prison sentence for conspiracy, showed off the watch at a New York City black-tie gala event honoring the Titanic II cruise ship last month, the newspaper said.
Miottel claims Marshall is pulling another ruse, and provided the newspaper detailed records of the whereabouts of Astor's monogrammed watch from the moment of the ship's sinking to the moment he bought it at an auction.
