$INKING FEELING

Clash of the Titanic over coin auction

The caretakers of the Titanic are battening down the hatches for a court battle to prevent four artifacts recovered from its North Atlantic wreckage site from going up for auction.

A British gold coin, two US bank notes and a block of coal retrieved decades ago from the detritus of the doomed passenger liner wrongly fell into the hands of a company that is trying to auction them off, claims RMS Titanic Inc., which owns the salvage rights to the ship and is suing to stop the auction.

RMS Titanic is the “steward and custodian” of the wreck, and claims in Manhattan Supreme Court papers that one of its former executives, G. Michael Harris, took the artifacts, which were then sold off to Mobile Grocers of America Inc. when Harris later filed for bankruptcy.

Harris claimed the four items had been gifted to him by another Titanic exec, George Tulloch, with whom he frequently butted heads, the group charges in court papers.

RMS Titanic contends Tulloch had no right to gift the artifacts to anyone.

The coin and the paper currency were recovered during a 1987 expedition to the wreck site, and the chunk of coal was retrieved during a 1994 dive, according to the legal filing.

Sale hits an iceberg

A preview by Guernsey’s, on the Upper East Side, trumpeted that the items — billed as “The Saga of Four Titanic Treasures” — would be sold online in “late spring, 2022.”

But Guernsey’s agreed to put the bid on hold after RMS Titanic lawyers reached out, according to court papers.

“We are waiting to hear the outcome of this legal action,” Guernsey’s President Arlan Ettinger told The Post.

RMS Titanic wants a judge to declare it the rightful owner of the artifacts and wants them returned.

The Titanic sank off the coast of Newfoundland in the North Atlantic Ocean after striking an iceberg on April 15, 1912. The wreck was first located by submersible on Sept. 1, 1985, at a depth of some 13,400 feet.

Seven expeditions to the wreck site — in 1987, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000 and 2004 — have recovered more than 5,000 artifacts, the suit says.

Neither lawyers for RMS Titanic nor defendant Mobile Grocers of America LLC returned calls for comment.

The Print Collector

MY LAWSUIT WILL GO ON: The firm that manages the wreckage of the RMS Titanic is going to court to halt the sale of these US bank notes, a British coin and a lump of coal recovered from the ship.