Titanic artifacts auction blocked by federal judge

A federal judge in Virginia blocked an auction of more than 100 century-old artifacts that were salvaged from the shipwrecked RMS Titanic vessel, calling their selling “an apparent threat” to the collection’s integrity and preservation.

U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith ordered RMS Titanic — the company with exclusive salvage rights to the wreckage — to pause its auction after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the French government opposed the sale.

Smith said in her decision that any sale of items related to the Titanic would be subject to the court’s approval, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

RMS Titanic first struck the deal for salvaging rights in 2011, though the auction puts the arrangement in a complicated situation.

The company wanted to auction the items earlier this year after making salvage claims in a U.S. District Court in Norfolk, Virginia, arguing they were facing “financial difficulties,” according to The New York Times .

The judge pushed back on this claim due to the fact that RMS Titanic’s partial owner — private equity firm Apollo Global Management — reportedly earns “billions of dollars in annual revenue and assets under management.”

NOAA argued the auction would separate the collection that already has competing claims. The agency’s website adds that RMS Titanic entered an agreement with a French court related to the artifacts stipulating that they must be “managed together … as a whole intact collection.”

The ship crashed on April 15, 1912 — killing roughly 1,500 of its 2,200 passengers. The wreck has since become a source of public fascination.

In 2023, for example, five people died when OceanGate’s submersible imploded while trying to visit the wreckage — located hundreds of miles below sea in the North Atlantic.

In April, a life jacket worn by a passenger of the crash that was signed by survivors sold for more than $900,000.

“These record-breaking prices illustrate the continuing interest in the Titanic story, and the respect for the passengers and crew whose stories are immortalized by these items of memorabilia,” auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said about the sale.

RMS Titanic did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment on the court’s decision.