A U.S. Federal Judge Rules Against Sale of Titanic Artifacts

A ‘wrecked’ sale? An Atlanta-based company that salvaged 100 artifacts from the Titanic shipwreck decades ago has been banned from auctioning them, a federal judge ruled Monday, according to The New York Times.

Judge Rebecca Beach Smith of the U.S. District Court in Norfolk, Virginia, upheld a 2011 ban on the sale of artifacts recovered by the R.M.S. Titanic Inc., a company previously authorized to salvage and exhibit items from the Titanic shipwreck. Smith said she has jurisdiction over all surfaced artifacts and will continue to consider whether the company can sell them.

The Titanic sank to the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean on April 14, 1912, after hitting an iceberg, taking with it approximately 1,500 passengers and crew members. R.M.S. Titanic Inc. has held exclusive salvage rights under Norfolk court orders since 1994. During the company’s first expedition in 1987—just two years after the wreck was discovered—it recovered some 1,800 artifacts and has surfaced 5,500 artifacts over several expeditions through 2004.

The company hoped to sell 100 items discovered in the 1987 expedition, including a bronze cherub, a necklace of gold nuggets, and a heart-shaped pendant distinct from the fictional blue diamond necklace (a.k.a. the Heart of the Ocean) from the 1997 movie. ARTnews previously reported that R.M.S. Titanic requested that court documents related to this latest endeavor remain sealed, but the U.S. District Court judge overseeing salvage operations disagreed and made the petition public.

In response, the company challenged Judge Smith’s authority over the 1,800 artifacts retrieved during that first expedition. The judge, however, ruled that she has the authority to enforce a 2011 agreement between the company and the court to keep all the artifacts it has salvaged together.

Additionally, the United States and French governments oppose the sale, along with 19 groups and individuals from the US and Europe.

The judge ordered the company to file an inventory of the 5,500 artifacts, including when and where each item was salvaged, its current location, and its condition. The judge also asked the company to detail its finances to assess its “viability to maintain the Titanic Collections under its obligations as trustee.”

The R.M.S. Titanic supports itself with permanent displays in Las Vegas and Orlando and exhibitions in Cleveland, Portland, Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic, drawing 35 million attendees, but has reported financial difficulties. Apollo Global Management Inc., one of the largest private equity firms in the world, is a part owner of the R.M.S. Titanic.

“The company recovered these artifacts at great peril,” R.M.S. Titanic said in a statement, “stabilized them for posterity, conserved and exhibited them for decades, while presenting them to tens of millions of people around the world.” Adding that it has been a “responsible steward of this historically important artifact collection.”

Artifacts from the Titanic sold at auction have fetched record prices; most recently, an 18-carat Jules Jurgensen gold watch belonging to Isidor Straus, who perished on board with his wife Ida, fetched £1.78 million ($2.33 million) last fall.