US government opposes plan to auction Titanic artifacts

The U.S. government is opposing a plan by the company that owns salvage rights to the Titanic to auction more than 100 artifacts recovered from the famous shipwreck. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees the wreck site, argues the proposed sale violates legal agreements requiring the vast collection of recovered items to remain intact and not be sold individually.

RMS Titanic Inc., the Georgia-based company with exclusive salvage rights, has proposed auctioning the artifacts and displaying them on a global tour across four cities. According to court documents unsealed in June 2026, the lots include personal belongings, currency, kitchen items, and decor, with specific items mentioned such as a bronze cherub, a necklace of gold nuggets, and a heart-shaped pendant. The artifacts in question were among the first recovered from the ocean floor in 1987.

The dispute centers on the legal obligations attached to the roughly 5,000 artifacts salvaged from the Titanic, which sank in the North Atlantic in 1912 after striking an iceberg, killing more than 1,500 people. NOAA contends that both U.S. court conditions and provisions from a French court require all...