Titanic treasures not to return to Belfast
A COLLECTION of 5,500 artefacts salvaged from the wreck of the Titanic will not now be coming home to Belfast, it emerged last night.
It comes after the National Maritime Museum Greenwich and National Museums Northern Ireland decided not to bid for the items.
The UK institutions, along with Titanic Belfast and Titanic Foundation Limited, had been trying to raise £14m to buy the relics from the present owners.
The rare collection became available after the company that currently owns the items —Premier Exhibitions — filed for bankruptcy in the US.
However, a rival bid of £16.5m was made by a US hedge fund, and the UK institutions withdrew.
The campaign to raise funds to bring the relics to Belfast was launched in July, and had been supported by Titanic film director James Cameron and Dr Bob Ballard, who discovered the wreck of the doomed ocean liner in 1985.
Soon after the wreck was found, the privately-owned company RMS Titanic Inc gained exclusive rights to salvage it and recovered a massive range of items from statues to shoes of the victims.
The thousands of relics were recovered from the seabed over the course of seven expeditions between 1987 and 2004.
In a statement, the National Maritime Museum Greenwich and National Museums Northern Ireland last night told the BBC: “The requirements for submitting a bid set forth in the debtors’ bid procedures appear to have been drafted to prevent museums like ours from participating.
“The institutional limitations of our bid were made clear to the debtors well in advance of, and again after, the filing of the bid procedures with the bankruptcy court.”
“We have raised significant funds to acquire the artefact collection and remain committed and willing to acquire the collection if given the opportunity.”
The famous ship — built in Belfast, sank after hitting an iceberg on its maiden voyage in 1912 — resulting in the deaths of more than 1,500 people.