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Subscribe to RSSOne century after the Titanic sank during its maiden voyage, the historic day is being commemorated around the world. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.
Negotiations to decide the fate of a $189 million collection of artifacts from the Titanic are going into overtime.
Atlanta-based Premier Exhibitions, which is seeking to sell 5,500 items recovered from the shipwreck site over the past 25 years, said today that it's "in discussions with multiple parties" for the purchase of the collection. The legal rulings that paved the way for the sale require that the collection must be sold as a single lot — and that the buyer must make the artifacts available for public exhibition and research.
The deadline for sealed bids passed more than a week ago, and since then Premier Exhibitions has been weighing the offers.
"In order for the company to settle on the most appropriate bidder and maximize the ultimate value of the artifacts for shareholders, it conduct these negotiations and due diligence in confidence," Premier said in a statement. The company said it would "provide an additional update to shareholders as soon as practical," and would reschedule a news conference that had been planned for Wednesday to announce the winning bid.
Premier's subsidiary, RMS Titanic Inc., is the only company with legal permission to recover objects from the Titanic, which ran into an iceberg and sank on April 15, 1912, during its maiden trans-Atlantic voyage from Southampton to New York. More than 1,500 of the ship's 2,228 passengers and crew lost their lives in the disaster. The 100th anniversary of the tragedy is boosting interest in the Titanic to new heights.
In addition to the physical artifacts, RMS Titanic has been collecting data and high-resolution imagery of the wreck site, two miles beneath the Atlantic surface. Its most recent expedition took place in 2010. The archaeological assets, including underwater video and 3-D mapping, are among the property being sold.
"Titanic is slowly being consumed by iron-eating microbes on the sea floor and, at some point in the not-too-distant future, it will be only a memory," Mark Sellers, chairman of Premier and RMS Titanic, said back in January. "We are proud of what we have accomplished as salvor-in-possession of the wreck site and we believe we have faithfully honored the legacy of those who were lost. After all those efforts, we have determined that the time has come for us to transfer ownership of this collection to a steward who is able to continue our efforts and will preserve and honor her legacy."
Actually, three major Titanic auctions are taking place this month. In addition to the Premier Exhibitions sale, which is being managed by Guernsey's auction house, there's a Bonhams auction set for Sunday in New York, and an RR Auction online sale due to begin April 19. Last month, the highlight of a London auction was the sale of a first-class menu from the Titanic's last lunch for $120,000.
Ben Stansall / AFP - Getty Images
A wreath floats in berths 43/44, the place from which the RMS Titanic set sail on its ill-fated maiden voyage 100 years ago, during a ceremony at Southampton's docks on April 10, 2012.
It's not clear whether any more artifacts will ever be brought up from the Titanic site. Beginning on the 100th anniversary of the sinking, the remains of the Titanic will be covered by a 2001 U.N. convention on the protection of underwater cultural heritage. In a statement issued last week, UNESCO said parties to the convention can seize artifacts taken from the Titanic, and prevent exploration of the site that is "deemed unscientific or unethical."
Neither the United States nor Canada are parties to that convention. However, UNESCO said the protections specified in the convention are also reflected in an international agreement on Titanic salvage that was signed by those two countries as well as France and Britain.
One of the most outspoken critics of Titanic salvaging has been oceanographer Robert Ballard, who was one of the co-discoverers of the Titanic wreck site in 1985. He has long said that if he could do it all over again, he would not publicize the location of the wreck, and today on NPR's "Talk of the Nation," he said he now wishes he claimed the site for himself.
"When I found the Titanic, I went to the courts, and I said, 'Well, can I own the Titanic?' And they said, yes. It's an abandoned shipwreck. All you have to do is go down and retrieve one object of saucer or plate or something, come into the courts, and we'll make you the owner. But we'll make you the owner under one condition, that you remove it from the bottom of the ocean. ... I was opposed to that. I wished I'd gone and got that one cup and brought it up and said, 'I want to turn it into an underwater museum.' I'd rather take people there through the technologies we now have, and I really regret I didn't do that."
In retrospect, do you think that would have been the better course? Feel free to weigh in with your thoughts about the fate of Titanic artifacts in the comment space below.
More about the Titanic:
- Titanic cruise diverted due to medical emergency
- Ship leaves NYC to visit Titanic graves in Canada
- Astrophysicist gets 'Titanic' director to tweak the sky
- 10 reasons for the Titanic tragedy
- Titanic's legacy: a fascination with disasters
- New images of Titanic shipwreck revealed
- PhotoBlog: More amazing pictures from the site
- Events mark 100th anniversary of Titanic's sinking
- Slideshow: Titanic Belfast museum makes debut
- Cosmic Log archive on the Titanic
Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding Cosmic Log's Google+ page to your circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.
Leave a Comment:
How does the UN decide what happens to a ship in International waters, tell the UN to go to hell and sell what you want. It happened 100 years ago bring up pieces or plates or whatever and sell it, display it whatever you want with it.
You are all morons !!!! Nuff said..
gee how come the govt. of SPAIN hasn't weighed in to say that it belongs to them! must be no gold or silver aboard!
After the recent legal battle over the gold and silver coinage recovered by a Florida salvage company, from a two hundred year old Spanish shipwreck, and then transfered by order of a U. S. court to Spain, I realized that I don't know anything about salvage law. I thought it was finders keepers. I don't understand how salvagers exist if they don't have protection. But I did learn one thing from the Florida company Spain controversy. The U. S. State Department got and divulged to Spain the required listing of the salvaged coins and other artifacts which was supposed to remain secrete, so my reaction is that Hillary Clinton can go pound sand. She is a traitor and needs to be brought to justice.
I don't see how Hillary can condemn Julian Assange and then out this Florida company which is fighting Spain to keep the proceeds of its salvage operation. Explain to me Hillary.
I think there is a "middle ground" the site should be offered some level of restriction and dignity. Where do you draw the line? Anything which would disturb the basic segments of the Ship and therefore the burial location. Even though we have significantly improved technology for sea travel, we still have much to learn for the sinking and that would include examination of the wreck as it lies on the bottom. Hopefully we would relearn that we and our mechanical creations are not infallible.
IMO, some of the artifacts should go to the descendants. Others should be placed in a museum here in the states and one in England. Then the remains of the Titanic should be left alone. I don't think it could be brought up anyway. Even if it could, it should remain in its resting place.
If all you have to do to claim a shipwreck is bring up some thing off the wreck to lay claim why did the salvage company who salvaged hundreds of millions in coins off a wreck lose all rights to the Spaniards?
i'm ashamed to be a member of the human race when my peers have no respect for for the dead!! when the living have no respect for anything but greed & their own selfish desires & wishes. i beleive everyone should consider the situation as if it was yourself that was on that ship & this was your final resting place. i think after 100 yrs my soul would have become comfortable with the fact that this peice of property was mine as well as the other souls i share it with till the end of this world. i wouldn't want people picking & probing thru my grave ,selling what doesn't belong to them , disrespecting other peoples memories of deceased family , freinds , loved ones & taking the honor of the men / women who died giving their service to the love of the ocean, their fellow human beings, & the occupation / employer of their chosing. has man regreesed to the point of self gratifaction is all that matters!! as for understanding or science is it that important we know & see. we couldn't change it or improve gods desire / plan. things are the way our father made them. maybe we should respect that & keep the deceased in our hearts & minds. remember there is more to this world than our wishes & desires. respect, peace, & love to all
I wish people would get passionate over something that really mattered. It is a shipwreck, just like tons of them on the ocean floor. We have brought up all kinds of stuff from the ocean where people died. Why is this different? If that is so and the stuff brought up is robbing a grave, I would like to see museums and private collectors around the world who have robbed many a grave, took many things out ships, even have the bodies of the dead on display return everything. The wining about this would stop real quick would stop if it were so. What is different here? We have a generation of people who have no idea of how things work and have been influenced by pop culture. If you like to see how pathetic it has become, just look at the twitter pages of clueless people who did not even know the Titanic even existed. These people can vote, buy a gun and drive!
Speaking of disasters the UN is involved in this so they should really mess it up as it appears to be their maxim. Lets focus on something important and for the artifacts sell them...one piece at a time if need be. It seems to be standard operating procedure at most museums and schools of higher learning. Why rock the boat?
I've read every post here and agree with most. IMO if I had been a passenger on the Titanic, I would want to be brought home, not left in in the middle of the ocean, I do not see this as a grave site. Families of the deceased held services for their loved ones. The vast ocean has claimed the bodies of the ones not recovered, so I don't see this a a burial ground and would feel if I had been one of the deceased on this wreck that I would not RIP till I was brought home. At this point in time if it was brought home all items should be held in a museum. JMO.
Laws or no laws, in my opinion nobody owns the middle of the ocean. But it is a grave site for many and should be treated as such. But to even be able to or have the technology to raise the Titanic which I still to this day think is impossible due to depth, pressure and deterioration would be an impressive sight, It ain't gonna happen due to cost of salvage and man hours. And even putting a ship of this magnitude behind glass or what not at a museum and only letting trained researchers and people who can maintain and preserve her would be an amazing sight as well. So I say leave her down there but another part of me also say's bring her up put her in a museum behind glass so prying hands cant touch. Either way someone is going to make money off of her. But to learn more about what is happening to her stucture at depth through research would be cool.
Also you don't see people trying to salvage anything off of the USS Arizona which took 1,177 sailors and it is an underwater museum but it is also military and not civilian.