A piece of the massive hull section recovered from the Titanic called “The Big Piece”.

The Titanic has been lying at the bottom of the ocean for nearly a century. On 15 April this year, 5 000 items from the world’s most famous shipwreck will be auctioned off in one lot – on the 100th anniversary of the disaster that took place on April 15, 1912.

All of the salvaged items are to be sold as one lot by Guernsey’s Auctioneers & Brokers. Its president, Arlan Ettinger describes it as the most significant auction ever handled by the house.

Who on this planet doesn’t know the story of the Titanic and isn’t fascinated by it? Could Hollywood have scripted a more tragic or goose-bump-raising story than what actually happened on that ship? It is as poignant to my 12-year-old son as it is to me and generations before me. There’s no end to the fascination about it.

The bronze cherub that once adorned the Grand Staircase

The collection was appraised in 2007 at more than a billion rand, including some intellectual property alongside the myriad items plucked by remote controlled probes from the pitch-black depths, some 4,2km below the ocean’s surface. Those artifacts include the massive hull section called “The Big Piece”, as well as personal belongings of passengers and crew, such as a mesh purse and eyeglasses. A bronze cherub that once adorned the Grand Staircase is also among the collection, as are fine china, table settings, bottles and ship fittings – even the stand upon which the ship’s wheel stood.

By court order, the items cannot be sold individually, and must go to a buyer who agrees to properly maintain the collection and make it available for occasional public viewing.

Here is a gallery of some of the rest of the items:

[Source: LA Times]