MORE THAN 5,000 items salvaged from the Titanic will go up for sale in 2012 – but potential buyers will need around €150million to get a look in.
The results of the landmark auction will be announced 100 years to the day since the huge ocean liner sank after hitting an iceberg, killing more than 1,500 people.
And the collection – the largest trove of artifacts salvaged from the Titanic – will only be on sale as one single lot.
Around 5,500 items including fine china, ship fittings and portions of hull that were recovered from the ocean liner have an estimated value of $189million (€145million), according to Premier Exhibitions Inc, the parent company of RMS Titanic Inc — the Titanic’s court-approved salvor, with responsibility for all items brought up from the wreck.
That value was based on a 2007 appraisal and does not include intellectual property gathered from a 2010 scientific expedition that mapped the wreck site.
The auction is scheduled for 1 April by Guernsey’s, a New York City auction house, according to filings by Premier Exhibitions Inc. Results of the auction won’t be announced until 15 April , the date a century ago the Titanic sank on its maiden voyage after striking an iceberg.
The Titanic treasures were amassed during seven perilous trips to the wreck, which rests about two and a half miles below the ocean surface in the North Atlantic.
A spokeswoman for the auction house and Premier Exhibitions declined Wednesday to discuss the auction with The Associated Press until a formal announcement in January.
The Titanic’s sinking claimed the lives of more than 1,500 of the 2,228 passengers and crew. An international team led by oceanographer Robert Ballard located the wreckage in 1985, about 400 miles off Newfoundland, Canada.
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