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Got $189 Million? Then You've Got 5,500 Artifacts from the Wreck of the 'Titanic'

January 5, 2012 at 4:33 PM | by | Comments (0)


A mug from third class on the Titanic

Anyone got $189 million just chilling in the bank? If your answer is yes, then you've probably also got enough extra space to house some 5,500 artifacts raised from the ocean floor wreck of the RMS Titanic, because all that is about to be auctioned off...in one fell swoop.

That's right; if you want to buy just one piece from the massive collection, you're going to have to buy all of it, since the auction comes complete with a 19-page document of what you can and cannot do with the items. It's mostly cannot do. So there'll be no drinking your morning coffee from a steerage class mug, nor will there be fogging up a porthole with your breath, only to write "J + L = <3" with your finger. You've got to treat these items with respect, just as the salvage company has attempted to do until now:

The auction is scheduled for April 11th, the hundredth anniversary of the ship’s departure from Southampton, England. All the relics were salvaged from the debris field surrounding the ship by R.M.S. Titanic Inc., a court-appointed salvaging company that conducted seven expeditions between 1987 and 2004. The wrecked ship itself has been treated as a sacred object and has remained untouched.

Oh and—according to Bloomberg—winning the bidding means you have the chance to join the expeditions company on a dive to the ship's debris field to recover more.

All of this doesn't sit right with us. To bought by a private collector, even if they must offer it up for public exhibition now and then? Hmm. It's not art, but relics from a tragic day in the history of thousands of travelers. Now if the collection is bought by a museum or other philanthropic institution, we guess we'll allow it. What this news has really done more than anything is alert us to the fact the 100th Anniversary of the sinking is creeping near. We're sure the "commemorative coins" are already at the stampers.

See a small slideshow of some of the pieces included in the auction here, our own photo gallery of the famous Titanic Graveyard in Canada here and our shots of the White Star Line HQ in Liverpool here.

[Photo: RMS Titanic, Inc.]

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