Titanic artifacts expected to bring $180M

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LAS VEGAS, March 22 (UPI) -- The sale of 5,500 Titanic artifacts -- including 350 pieces at the Luxor in Las Vegas -- is expected to bring in more than $180 million, officials say.

All of the more than 5,500 artifacts recovered from the wreck of the Titanic and a substantial body of intellectual property is for sale, the Las Vegas Sun reported Wednesday.

However, it must all be bought together, not piecemeal, the newspaper said. The entire collection, which made up of artifacts recovered during seven expeditions to the site from 1987 through 2004, was valued at $189 million.

On sale for 10 days ending March 31, the Titanic Collection includes 100 pieces of jewelry and souvenirs from the Titanic's three classes of passengers and a 17-ton section of the hull with hundreds of rivets and portholes. The intellectual property portion of the sale includes underwater video footage of the recovery of the artifacts and extensive three-dimensional mapping of the ship itself, the Sun said.

On April 14, 1912, the RMS Titanic sank 12,500 feet to the North Atlantic Ocean floor after colliding with an iceberg in the night.

The Luxor will commemorate the 100-year anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic Tuesday by holding a candlelit vigil at the Luxor with Renee West, hotel president. Tom Goldsmith, a descendant of survivor Frank John William Goldsmith, will speak at the event before a moment of silence to honor those who were aboard the ship.