Salvage Company Hoping to Sell Titanic Artifacts Challenges Courts Role

For much of the past four decades, the company that owns exclusive salvage rights to the Titanic shipwreck had vowed it would not sell the artifacts or break up the full collection.But earlier this year, the company — the Atlanta-based R.M.S.Titanic Inc.

— made plans to auction off 100 of the 5,500 artifacts it has collected.It went to court on Thursday to defend the proposed sale.In U.S.

District Court in Norfolk, Va., the company argued before Judge Rebecca Beach Smith that she has no jurisdiction over the 100 disputed artifacts because they were recovered in 1987 and were awarded to the company by a French court.Under maritime law, salvage claims of wrecks in international waters can be taken to any admiralty court in the world.R.M.S.

Titanic initially took its 1987 claim to France, but it brought claims for items salvaged later to the federal court in Norfolk, which is home to many maritime law firms.The hearing also touched on R.M.S.

Titanic’s financial condition.In court papers, the company has said it was suffering financially and needed to sell the 100 artifacts to pay debts and raise money to conserve and curate the remaining artifacts.Judge Smith questioned the severity of the financial problems, noting that R.M.S.

Titanic is backed by wealthy institutions.“Why do you need to sell these artifacts?” she asked.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

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