R.M.S. Titanic’s Plan to Sell Salvaged Artifacts at Auction Faces Ongoing Opposition

Back in May, R.M.S. Titanic’s plan to bring 100 artifacts recovered from the shipwreck to auction became public. R.M.S. Titanic is the name of the company that owns exclusive sales rights to the notorious shipwreck. The objects in question were among those rescued from the ocean floor in 1987, two years after the wreck was discovered and 75 years after the ship sank in the North Atlantic.

Various government entities in the US and France had previously voiced objection to the company’s periodic attempts to sell items from the shipwreck, part of the reason why, according to the New York Times, R.M.S. Titanic requested that court documents related to this latest endeavor remain sealed. (A U.S. District Court judge in Norfolk, Va., which oversees salvage operations, disagreed and made the petition public.) A lawyer for R.M.S. Titanic declined to tell the Times exactly which artifacts they planned to sell.

A recent Washington Post article gleaned additional information about the proposed sale from newly unsealed court documents. The sale, which still needs to be approved by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, would include personal belongings, currency, kitchen items, and décor; in addition to being put on the auction block, the items in question would go on a four-city global tour.

Among the 100 artifacts to be sold are a bronze cherub, a necklace of gold nuggets, and a heart-shaped pendant. (No, not the Heart of the Ocean, the fictional blue diamond necklace from the James Cameron movie.)

According to the “Real Artifacts” section of the R.M.S. Titanic website, the cherub “serves to personify the grace and luxury of Titanic.” It would have been perched on the ship’s grand staircase, and is the only one to have been recovered from the wreckage. There is no necklace of gold nuggets nor a heard-shaped pendant among the company’s Top 25 Artifacts, though as for jewelry, there is a filigree pendant necklace and a pocket watch.

The site does highlight several kitchen items (a Spode porcelain cup; 2nd and 3rd class dishware), personal belongings (a leather duffel bag, a man’s suit jacket), and décor (a stained glass window from the 1st class smoking room), thought it’s unclear if any of objects are intended to be part of the proposed sale.