Titanic artifacts to go up for auction

The world’s biggest collection of artifacts recovered from the Titanic will be auctioned off in one lot on April 15, 2012, the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the ship, Reuters reported.

The collection includes 5,500 items and was valued at $189 million in 2007, according to Reuters. The artifacts were recovered from the Titanic wreck site in the North Atlantic in seven expeditions between 1987 and 2004, the Associated Press reported. An auction preview will be held next week in New York, a spokesperson from New York-based Guernsey Auctioneers, the auction house that will be handling the sale, told Reuters.

The seller is museum exhibition company Premier Exhibitions Inc., the parent of RMS Titanic Inc., the Titanic’s court-approved salvor, the AP reported.

According to the AP:

Atlanta-based Premier Exhibitions has been displaying the Titanic artifacts in exhibitions around the world. The items include personal belongings of passengers, such as perfume from a manufacturer who was traveling to New York to sell his samples.

Bidders will be selected to participate in the auction through an application process that ends on 1 April, 2012, BBC News reported. The successful bidder will also have to win the approval of a federal judge in Virginia who oversees legal issues governing the salvage of the Titanic, the AP reported.

"We expect to identify a buyer capable of serving as a proper steward of the collection and the wreck site, while continuing to build upon the work that RMST and its partners in the oceanographic and archaeological communities have accomplished," RMS Titanic President Christopher Davino said, BBC News reported.

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