Francis Ford Coppola selling $1.3m watch to keep himself afloat

There are basically three reasons people auction off their prized possessions: death, divorce and debt.

- Jacob Bernstein

The Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola (left) is selling his FFC Prototype (above) by F.P. Journe. PHOTO: AFP, PHILLIPS AUCTION/ INSTAGRAM

(AFP PHILLIPS AUCTION INSTAGRAM)

The last of these was the reason Francis Ford Coppola was speaking on Oct 24 over Zoom.

“I need to get some money to keep the ship afloat,” the 86-year-old American filmmaker said from Rome, Italy, while describing the seven timepieces he would be offering for sale on Dec 6 through Phillips, a leading auction site in the worlds of art, antiques and, especially, watches.

Losing great gobs of money can almost be seen as a Coppola family sport.

In 1982, Coppola, best known for directing The Godfather trilogy (1972 to 1990), made a costly whopper of a movie musical called One From The Heart.

As with many of his passion projects, he put up much of the financing for it himself.

Over the next decade, its failure led to a string of bankruptcies. In 1992, he described himself in a Chapter 11 filing as owing US$98 million to his creditors and as having assets of around US$53 million.

He reemerged, kept making movies and became something of a collector.