Bankrupt Titanic Exhibitor Sets Biggest Sale of Ship Relics
- Judge hears plans to auction 5,500 items retrieved from wreck
- U.S., China investors, U.K. museums, movie maker mulling bids
Photographer: Niall Carson/PA Images via Getty Images
This article is for subscribers only.
The story of the doomed luxury liner R.M.S. Titanic proved so alluring that divers were searching for the wreck seven decades after it sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Once it was found in 1985, fanfare over retrieved relics led to exhibits around the world and a blockbuster movie.
But the company holding the rights to the ship and 5,500 artifacts has been mired in debt, placing the future of its collection in the hands of a bankruptcy court. On Thursday, a judge weighed plans for auctioning the largest trove of Titanic memorabilia, which already is drawing the interest of U.S. hedge funds, Chinese investors, British museums and award-winning filmmaker James Cameron.