Titanic artefacts auctioned above expected prices

NEW YORK - An unending fascination with the Titanic helped push prices above expected levels in an auction today of artefacts of the 1912 shipwreck, including four bronze plates from the liner's lifeboats.

Christie's auction house spokesman Rik Pike said one lot consisting of a plate reading "S.S. Titanic" and a White Star Line flag rendered in bronze sold for US$72,000, ($114,685) above the estimated range of US$50,000 to US$70,000.

Another lot comprising a plate also reading "S.S. Titanic" and one saying "Liverpool," where the ship was built, sold for US$60,000, at the top end of the estimated range of US$40,000 to US$60,000, the auction house said.

The two lots, bought by anonymous telephone bidders, were the highlights of a sale of 350 lots of ocean-liner furnishings and art, from three major collections as well as the Steamship Historical Society.

A detailed deck plan given to first-class passengers sold for US$21,600 after being estimated at US$15,000 to US$20,000; a medal commissioned by famed survivor Molly Brown and presented to crew members of the rescue ship Carpathia sold for US$10,200, well above the estimate of US$3,000 to US$4,000.

Two paper slips stamped "Titanic" that were used to bundle mail and were recovered from a postal clerk's body sold for US$14,400 apiece, Christie's said.

The four brass plates, among only six known still to exist, were from a New York family's collection.

The record for Titanic memorabilia sold at auction was the US$123,500 price, at Christie's in 1998, for a volume of Marconi telegrams warning of icebergs, the Christie's spokesman said.

The Titanic sank after hitting an iceberg on her maiden voyage to New York. More than 1,520 passengers and crew died, including some leading celebrities, leaving only about 700 survivors. Titanic, the 1997 movie about the disaster, was the biggest box-office film ever, earning US$1.8 billion worldwide.

- REUTERS