Titanic in the News: Artifact Auction

In 1985, oceanographer Robert Ballard located the remains of the Titanic. Beginning in 1987, Premier Exhibitions Inc., the company responsible for the traveling Titanic exhibits, began a 30-year recovery of artifacts. Now, an auction of over 5,000 Titanic artifacts is scheduled for this November.

Titanic Artifacts

Eventually named “salvor-in-possession” by a US judge in 1994, Premier Exhibitions and its subsidiary RMS Titanic Inc. has recently filed for bankruptcy. They owe their creditors more than $10 million, and hope to pay them back as well as their stockholders with proceeds from a November auction.  In 1914, the value of the artifacts potentially up for auction was estimated by a fine arts appraiser to be at least $218 million.

A group of very interested buyers is led by James Cameron, Academy Award-winning director of the movie “Titanic”. Cameron has made several expeditions to the site of the ship’s sinking. Another member of the group is Titanic’s discoverer, Robert Ballard.

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"Titanic" Director James Cameron

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Robert Ballard

Ballard recently appeared in federal court to express his concerns about protecting the wreckage and the artifacts. “My fear…is that the artifacts could potentially disappear from public view, be damaged or lost to the world at large,” he told the court. He stated he represents the feelings of all the group members, including Cameron, the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich in London, and the Titanic Belfast exhibition center. If the group is the highest bidder for the artifacts, it is hoped the items will be protected and preserved for generations to come.

Survivors of Titanic as well as rescuers have sold recovered items in the past, including two menus that sold for $140,000 in 2012, and a violin that raised $1.45 million at auction in 2013.

Some of the items up for auction will be a bronze cherub from the ship’s grand staircase, a sapphire-and-diamond ring, a steward’s jacket, and a silver-plated chocolate pot.

Ronald Reagan and the Titanic

A Titanic exhibit unlike any other has opened at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California. None of the items on display were taken directly from the wreck itself. Instead, items carried off the ship by survivors, objects from the 1985 discovery of the wreck, and those pertaining to the 1997 movie Titanic are part of the 10,000-square foot exhibition. But why the Reagan Library? Was there a connection between the President and the Titanic?

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When Titanic sank in 1912, most people believed the ship would never be found. Exactly where she rested was unclear, and a few expeditions through the years to her last known whereabouts failed to turn up any evidence.

But in 1985, everything changed. Robert Ballard of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Research Institution had worked with unmanned submersibles since the 1970s. He’d explored several shipwrecks, but finding the Titanic had always been his dream. Finally, after raising the funds for an expedition and partnering with a French research team, Ballard found the Titanic. The first photos of the ship as she lay on the ocean floor were seen on September 1, 1985. More information and photos were gathered during subsequent explorations.

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Robert Ballard

Ballard wanted the wreck site to be left undisturbed, but many salvagers soon undertook their own expeditions and retrieved thousands of artifacts, at times causing controversy among descendants of passengers or crew and others who agree with Ballard. Today, the only official salvager is RMS Titanic Inc. The company is not allowed to sell any of the artifacts, but may use them for public display and charge admission to pay for its expeditions.

Titanic Artifacts

In 1986, President Reagan issued the International Maritime Memorial Act to protect the Titanic site and preserve it for generations to come. Following the passing of the Act, an international agreement between the United Kingdom and the United States was reached, which states the same policies as the Act but on an international scale.

At the Reagan Library exhibit, some of the items on display include Robert Ballard’s submersible, Alvin, that took him down to the wreck of the Titanic, sheet music found on the body of orchestra leader Wallace Hartley, and one of the ship's eight deck chairs known to still exist. Props and costumes from the Academy Award winning movie and many other items of interest can be seen by the public for the first time.

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This is not a traveling exhibition, and will only be available for public viewing until January 7, 2018. Please enjoy the following video for more about the exhibit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EguqR4QYN2E

Photo credits: en.wikipedia.org, thehistoryblog.com, myscvcoa.org.