Everything that has been salvaged from the Titanic, including a piece of the hull and the various maps and other intellectual property created from the wreckage, will be auctioned in a few months.
From You could be King of the World at this Titanic auction:
For sale: one puppy. Appraised value: about $189 million.
OK, it’s not a puppy, but if you’ve had one, you have an idea of the all-consuming commitment of owning the treasures from the Titanic, auctioneer Arlan Ettinger said Thursday as he warned off casual buyers tempted to bid on the collection when it goes on sale in April.
For one thing, the items – more than 5,000 of them – must be sold in bulk, Ettinger said at a news conference announcing the auction, held just up the Hudson River from where the Titanic was due to dock in April 1912. That means the gold coins, the perfectly preserved demitasses, and the man’s vest with buttons still attached will come with a 17-ton hulk of hull and no shortage of other items better suited for a shipyard than a collector’s coffee table.
And whoever buys the trove takes on the task of being steward over the collection and the submerged wreckage, responsible for keeping some of the collection on public display at any given time and preserving it, and the ship’s remains, for future generations.
There’s also the following video, which shows a number of items in the auction and talks about the uncertainty of the value.
James Cameron’s Titanic will be re-released in 3-D on April 6th. Here’s the stirring and sappy trailer for the re-release: