World's 'Oldest' Jeans Found In Sunken Ship 165 Years Ago Sold For Rs 94 Lakh: Report

The jeans were among 270 never-before-sold California Gold Rush artefacts that fetched £815,000 in total. A hurricane killed 425 of the 578 passengers on a cruise from Panama to New York City.

Levi Jeans Found In Sunken Ship

Despite being a little worn, the oldest known pair of Levi's jeans sold at auction for £92,960. They were recovered from the SS Central America, which drowned in a hurricane on its way to New York in 1857.

The jeans were possibly designed by the Levi Strauss Company, according to Holabird Western Americana Collections, which was founded in 2012 to address the desires of Americana collectors looking for unusual and distinctive artefacts at costs lower than most major auction houses' minimum lot prices.

"There has never been anything of the scope of these recovered artefacts, which represented a time capsule of daily life during the Gold Rush," said Fred Holabird, a United-Kingdom national daily, Metro reported. 

The jeans were among 270 never-before-sold artefacts from the California Gold Rush era that sold for a total of £815,000.

Another highlight was a one-of-a-kind hardwood lid to a Wells Fargo & Co treasure chest that sold for £81,220.

The keys to the ship's treasure room, which housed tonnes of gold coins and ingots, fetched £84,155.

When the SS Central America sank 7,200 feet down in the Atlantic, it was carrying treasure from San Francisco.

On a cruise from Panama to New York City, a hurricane killed 425 of the 578 passengers and crew.

Several recovery operations were conducted between 1988 and 1991, as well as in 2014.

"Insurance claims for the loss were paid in the 1850s, and the business that discovered and recovered the treasure beginning in 1988 settled with the insurers and their successors in 1998," Holabird added, Metro reported.

"With the approval of the court, California Gold Marketing Group subsequently acquired clear title to all of the remaining treasure as well as all of the items recovered in 2014."

(With Inputs From Agencies)