Titanic director could bid on bankrupt owner’s ocean relics

More than 5,500 items from ill-fated liner, plus rights to salvage more, now for sale

More than a hundred years after the Titanic sank to the bottom of the North Atlantic, artifacts salvaged from the world’s most famous ship disaster are scheduled to be auctioned off.

But to get your hands on a piece of history, you will need to make a bid on all of the more than 5,500 items pulled from the ocean floor. Also, you may have to go head to head with a wealthy, motivated bidder: Oscarwinning director James Cameron.

Premier Exhibitions, the Atlantabased company that retrieved thousands of artifacts from the ill-fated liner, filed for bankruptcy protection last year and has offered to sell shoes, eyeglasses, statues, dishware, hand- bags and other Titanic relics to pay off some of its debts. Also for sale are the rights to salvage more items from the wreck.

Court records show that the company claims total debts of $15 million (U.S.), with $36 million in assets.

A bankruptcy judge has set a deadline of July 21for interested buyers to bid for the collection.

Cameron, who directed the Academy Award-winning movie Titanic, has proposed teaming up with Robert Ballard, the professor of oceanography who helped discover the wreckage in 1985, to bid for the artifacts, according to David Gallo, an oceanographer who helped lead a 2010 expedition to the Titanic.

Gallo said he has spoken with both Cameron and Ballard, who told him they want to take the collection back to England. “Jim is dedicated and has a certain passion for the site,” Gallo said. “He would really like to see the collection stay together.”