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FILE – In this January 14, 2015 issue photo, director James Cameron speaks to reporters at an event in Wellington, New Zealand. Filmmaker Cameron supports an offer announced Tuesday, July 24, 2018 by a group of British museums to amass 20 million US dollars (15 million pounds) to buy 5,500 Titanic objects from the privately owned American company that rescued them from the United States. wreck of the liner RMS Titanic. (Nick Perry, File / Associated Press)
LONDON – Filmmaker James Cameron and discoverer Titanic Robert Ballard back an offer from a group of British museums to acquire a collection of 5,500 artifacts from the sunken ship.
The campaign announced Tuesday aims to raise $ 20 million (15 million pounds) to buy items from a private American company that rescued them from the wreckage.
The 1997 blockbuster director Titanic, along with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, said there are serious concerns that the collection will be broken and sold privately because that company went bankrupt.
"That's why people who have a protective role have stepped up and have tied their arms," said Cameron. "It's an incredible piece of history, an object lesson about human pride." If it's sold in private hands, it disappears from the public. It would be broken and could not never to be reassembled. "
He said that his expeditions to the underwater site made him feel responsible for honoring those who lost their lives on his condemned trip in 1912.
The objects include section of the ship's hull and a bronze cherub decoration of the ship's grand staircase. They were recovered from the wreck site during seven high seas expeditions between 1987 and 2004.
The offer for the artifacts comes from the Royal Museums of Greenwich, the National Museums of Ireland North, Titanic Belfast and the Titanic Foundation Limited. The National Geographic Society has pledged $ 500,000 to help finance the project
The bid was announced at Titanic Belfast at the location where the ship was designed, built and launched.
Ballard, who discovered the wreck in 1985, said campaign is the "only viable option to retain the integrity" of the artifacts. He stated that the collection "deserved to be brought home where his journey began."
The Titanic sank in the North Atlantic during his maiden voyage in 1912 after hitting an iceberg. More than 1,500 passengers and crew members died.
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