17 AUG: A company which staged death-defying feats to recover objects from the Titanic wreck has now been given ownership of the 5900 or so items brought to the surface.
RMS Titanic Inc has had exclusive salvage rights to the wreck and has been exhibiting recovered artifacts worldwide.
A year ago, a US judge ruled that the company was entitled to compensation for what she described as "unprecedented feats of skill and dedication" shown during seven expeditions to the wreck, which lies 4kms below the north Atlantic.
She awarded it $US110m, the estimated value of the artifacts.
But she delayed till 15 August this year a decision on whether the company should be given ownership of the artifacts..
In a decision yesterday in the US east coast city of Norfolk, Virginia she granted the company title to fine china, ship fittings and thousands of other salvaged items.
Titanic sank on 15 April 1912 with the loss of more than 1500 lives.
