The federal government may put the hammer down on a planned auction of Titanic artifacts.
RMS Titanic Inc., which owns exclusive salvage rights to the shipwreck, is planning to sell more than 100 items that have been brought up from the seafloor, The Associated Press reported.
Items include a bronze cherub, a gold necklace, and a heart-shaped pendant.
Other items include a sapphire and diamond ring and a bracelet that has the name “Amy” on it, the “Today” show reported.
The items proposed for sale were among the first items brought back to the surface, some of which were taken to France and then awarded to the company. The rest of the items were recovered by subsequent expeditions.
While RMS Titanic Inc. holds the salvage rights, the site is overseen by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA claims that the sale violates the company’s legal obligations to the site, the AP said.
The government wrote in the lawsuit that RMS Titanic Inc. “does not seek the Court’s approval, does not believe that approval is required, and asserts that it is not restricted in its ability to sell” the historic items.
Read the lawsuit here or below:
The company had previously said the auction would not violate existing court orders or agreements.
In addition to the sale, RMS Titanic Inc. plans to take the items on a global tour in four undisclosed cities, the AP reported.
NOAA said that the roughly 5,000 items planned for sale and tour must be kept in one collection based on U.S. court decisions. The company said U.S. courts do not have jurisdiction over items from France.
This is not the first time that artifacts from the doomed ocean liner have gone on the auction block.
A passenger-worn life jacket was sold for $900,000 earlier this year. First class passenger Laura Mabel Francatelli wore it when she left the Titanic. The life jacket was signed by her and other survivors who were on the same lifeboat.
A seat cushion from a lifeboat sold for $527,000 in the same auction.
A letter written by Archibald Gracie on April 10, 2012, and read, “It is a fine ship but I shall await my journeys end before I pass judgment on her,” fetched $399.000 last year. Gracie jumped from the ship as it went down and was rescued by passengers in a lifeboat and eventually picked up by the RMS Carpathia. He wrote a book, “The Truth about the Titanic,” recounting the experience. Gracie died the same year as the sinking from complications of diabetes, never fully recovering from hypothermia.
The most expensive item sold at auction was a gold pocket watch given to the captain of the RMS Carpathia, which rescued 700 Titanic survivors. The watch sold for nearly $2 million in 2024.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court in Norfolk, Virginia.
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