Mitzi Perdue decided to take special action to help Ukraine. This is why she is auctioning off her emerald engagement ring, which had been given to her by her late husband Frank Perdue. This is a particularly special ring as the stone had been found by treasure hunters off the coast of Florida. The jewel which was found centuries later had been on the sunken Nuestra Señora de Atocha, a Spanish treasure galleon. The ship had sunk in 1622.
The diver Mel Fischer and his team had been the ones to uncover the shipwreck in the 1960s. In 1985, Fisher and his team also found the main hull of the ship where many of the treasures were found. According to the Smithsonian magazine, on the ship were “70 pounds of Colombian emeralds”, “180,000 silver coins, 24 tons of Bolivian silver, 125 gold bars and a collection of Venezuelan pearls.” In 2017 many other emeralds from the shipwreck had been auctioned off.
The state of Florida had previously tried to claim the valuables; however, the Supreme Court had ruled that the treasure hunters would be the ones to keep the remains. Frank Perdue had funded the exhibition which allowed him to be the first to claim some of the findings. Other treasures recovered were donated to the Smithsonian Institution and Delaware Tech. One of the emeralds was turned into an engagement ring, which he then gave to Mitzi in 1988 as an engagement ring.
Purdue told Town & Country that her late husband would have been happy to see that his gift was used for such a good purpose. She added that her late husband had been “the most philanthropic person I ever knew”.
