The glass, offered at the Vienna Dorotheum on April 19, came from the windscreen of one of the cars in the motorcade, and was smashed by shrapnel from a bomb hurled by a would-be assassin in the first attempt on the Archduke’s life.
Nedeljko Cabrinovic, a 19-year-old activist, struck as the parade halted briefly en route to the town hall. The Archduke’s driver spotted the danger and accelerated away – some reports said the bomb landed in the car and the Archduke grabbed it and threw it onto the road – but the blast damaged the following cars and injured several people, including the Archduke’s wife Sophie.
Later the procession continued, but after some confusion another pro-Serb protester Gavrilo Princip, leapt from the crowd and fired two shots, hitting the Archduke in the neck and Sophie in the stomach as she tried to shield her husband. The couple, who had been celebrating their 14th wedding anniversary, both died.
The damaged pane sold at its top estimate ASch30,000 (£1365) to the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum in Austria, which already owns the car in which the Archduke was travelling.
The sale also included a beswagged silver-gilt inkstand, 10 x 61/4in (25 x 16cm), with the hallmark of Würbel & Czokally, made for the ill-fated Habsburg heir Franz Ferdinand, and engraved with his FF monogram. It fetched ASch280,000 (£2670).
Battling over haunting mementos of Sarajevo
Austria: This broken pane of glass formed a haunting reminder of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, which precipitated World War I.
