This young woman was dubbed the Mona Lisa of the Deep after her haunting portrait was found in the wreckage of a sunken ship in 1857. Notable for its superb resolution, the photo is a 19th-century metal plate daguerreotype, the first photographic process accessible to the public.
The image sold for £61,591 at an auction of items salvaged from the SS Central America.
The ship was carrying tons of gold rush treasures from San Francisco and northern California when it sank 7,200 feet deep in the Atlantic.
It was hit by a hurricane from Panama to New York City, killing 425 of the 578 passengers and crew.
The Science Mission’s recovery team dubbed the unidentified woman “Mona Lisa of the Deep”, after recovering the photo in 2014 from the seabed where it was discovered in a pile of coal scattered around the ship.
No information has been found so far on the identity of this person.
Other items up for auction over two days in Reno, Nevada, included a large 18-karat gold etched quartz brooch from the California Gold Rush, which sold for £41,470. San Francisco businessman Sam Brannan sent it to his son in Geneva, Switzerland, as a gift for his teacher.
A 32.15 oz bar of Kellogg &; Humbert assayer’s California Gold Rush was sold for £116,218. The ship’s saloon sign sold for £11,116.
Fred Holabird of Holabird Western Americana Collections said: “Many collectors have been waiting for these extraordinary items to come to market since the sunken vessel was located in 1988 and Life magazine proclaimed it the greatest treasure ever. found in America.
