A company that owns 5,500 relics from the sunken luxury liner R.M.S. Titanic won approval for a proposed sale of the artifacts, with the chief executive officer leading a group that’s kicking off the bidding for the items, Bloomberg News reported. A $19.5 million offer from the group, led by Premier Exhibitions Inc. CEO and director Daoping Bao, will be the opening bid for the collection at an October auction, according to court filings. Bao is also the company’s largest shareholder. A unit of the Atlanta-based company that retrieved or acquired thousands of artifacts from the ill-fated liner filed for bankruptcy protection in 2016. It proposed selling the collection, which includes jewelry, clothing and statutes. Along with the relics, the rights to salvage additional items from the 107-year-old wreck are also up for sale. Bankruptcy Judge Paul Glenn Tuesday ruled executives of the Premier unit will have until mid-October to accept bids for the collection, which had once been valued at almost $190 million.
