10:24 AM EST on Wednesday, February 1, 2006

Associated Press

  RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- The company that has exclusive salvage rights to the wreckage of the Titanic does not own the site or the artifacts recovered from it, a federal appeals court said Tuesday.

The ruling by a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a decision by the U.S. District Court in Norfolk.

Atlanta-based RMS Titanic Inc. had sought full ownership over the nearly 6,000 artifacts it has recovered from the shipwreck. The company claims the artifacts are worth more than $71 million.

In 1994, the federal court granted the company sole salvage rights, allowing them to recover artifacts from the famous luxury liner under the pretense that they would be used in the public interest. The court also barred the company from selling the artifacts, including passengers' clothing and part of the ship's hull.

In Tuesday's ruling, the appeals court denied the company's request to own the artifacts rather than act as a caretaker for the collection. The company had asked the court to apply the rule of "finders-keepers" to what it recovered from the wreckage.

"A free finders-keepers policy is but a short step from active piracy and pillaging," wrote Judge Paul V. Niemeyer for the court. "How long after a ship runs aground would it take under a free finders-keepers policy before scavengers would be crawling over the wreck for property to deprive the owner of his property rights?"

Niemeyer, along with Chief Judge William W. Wilkins and Judge Robert B. King, did, however, vacate the Norfolk court's ruling that denied RMS Titanic salvage-in-possession rights over about 1,800 artifacts recovered in 1987 from the Titanic.

The appeals court ruled the lower court did not have jurisdiction in the case. The company had been given full ownership rights to the artifacts by the French government.

RMS Titanic officials said they were pleased with parts of the court's ruling.

"There are great benefits derived from this decision," said Arnie Geller, president and chief executive of RMS Titanic Inc. "We had made a committment that our wish was to keep the entire collection."

Geller said the decision to keep the 1987 artifacts under the original French agreement is the "greatest assurance of keeping the exhibition together."

The luxury liner sank on its maiden voyage on April 14, 1912, nearly 400 miles off Newfoundland, Canada, killing more than 1,500. RMS Titanic has conducted seven expeditions at the site since the wreckage was located in 1985.

More than 16.5 million people worldwide have visited traveling exhibits of the collection. Proceeds from the exhibits are reinvested into the company's salvage efforts, Geller said.

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)