Model ship fetches a small fortune

A 37.5-inch replica of the ill-fated Lusitania, the star lot in an auction of antique toys collected by the late Malcolm Forbes and his sons, sold for $194,500 (€180,000) at Sotheby’s in New York in 2010, a record for a toy boat sold at auction.

The publishing magnate bought it in 1983 for $28,600.

A 19th-century toy gunboat made in Germany in the 1880s fetched $134,500, failing to reach its low estimate of $150,000. The largest boat in the Forbes collection, the 47-inch-long French battleship Andre, was expected to go for $300,000. It failed to sell.