Buyers Wanted
There are signs that Titanic aficionados would be eager to own individual items. Over the years, some artifacts have been sold that were retrieved by survivors and weren’t part of the Premier collection. A violin recovered from the body of the Titanic’s band leader fetched more than $1.45 million. A fur coat donned by a crew member to combat the harsh Atlantic cold on that fateful April night brought $235,000. A key to the crow’s nest sold for $145,000, and a cracker from a survival kit went for $23,000.

Rather than sell items piecemeal, Premier’s chief executive officer and biggest shareholder, Daoping Bao, has proposed a plan backed by a bevy of investment funds and Chinese businessmen who have bought $2 million of the company’s debt. Among Bao’s backers are Hong Kong-based PacBridge Capital Partners Ltd. and U.S.-based Apollo Global Management. Premier also hired Gallo, the oceanographer, as a paid consultant.

Bao’s group pledged to keep the collection intact and within reach of U.S. courts while planning to ramp up scientific and tourist expeditions to the wreck.

Titanic Branson
Paul Burns, vice president and curator of the Titanic-themed museums in Branson, Missouri, and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, said in an interview Thursday in Jacksonville that his organization had tried to acquire the Premier artifacts for $10 million last year, but had been turned down.

“We’d like to buy it so we can display it in the U.S.,” Burns said, adding that a successful bid by Bao could raise questions about foreign ownership and a review by the U.S. government.

Giovanni Wong, PacBridge’s managing partner, declined to comment outside the Jacksonville bankruptcy court.

During the hearing Thursday, an attorney representing minority shareholders asked Gilbert Lee, a partner at Alta Fundamental Advisers, whether the Bao group would ever break up the collection. “Anything’s possible,” Lee said.

Earlier this month, Premier’s lead lawyer, Robert McFarland, told Chief U.S. District Judge Rebecca Smith that the artifacts are “not going overseas to somewhere that may or may not be within the court’s jurisdiction. It most certainly is not going to get broken up, like another plan that has been proposed.’’

Raised Bid
At the hearing, Bao’s group raised its bid for the assets to $19.5 million from $17.5 million, and said it put down a cash deposit. That tops an offer of $19.2 million from a third bidding group, which includes some British museums backed by Cameron, the filmmaker whose 1997 disaster/love story “Titanic” racked up more than $2 billion in box-office sales. The Washington-based National Geographic Society pledged $500,000 to help fund the museum bid.

“We could ensure that no further objects are raised from the wreck site and thus protect the site for all time,” Kevin Fewster, director of the Royal Museums Greenwich, said in an emailed response to questions.