Haul of Titanic artefacts to be auctioned

A massive haul of items salvaged from the wreck of RMS Titanic is to go under the hammer at auction.

Premier Exhibitions, the company behind ‘Titanic: The Artefact Exhibition’, is to offer the items for sale as a complete lot.

The items currently spend their time globetrotting, with the travelling Exhibition staged at the O2 in London last year.

But for 2012 – the centenary of the infamous 1912 sinking – Premier clearly thinks there’s more capital in selling the items than keeping them.

The 5,000-piece collection was valued back in 2007 at $189 million, or about 120 million quid at today’s prices.

Items recovered from the wreck between 1987 and 2010 include personal passenger effects, pieces of wreckage and, poignantly, the bell from the crow’s nest.

Bids for the collection as a single lot will be open until April 1st, with a sale announced on April 15th, the anniversary of the sinking.

2012 looks set to be a year for Titanic aficionados with memorial events scheduled worldwide, and the 3D re-release of James Cameron’s ‘Titanic.’