Responsible Bidders Sought for Titanic Auction The New York auction house Guernsey's explained on Thursday that all bidders in its planned winner-take-all auction of more than 5,500 artifacts salvaged from the wreckage of the Titanic must agree to abide by 19 pages" worth of court-ordered covenants and commitments governing the collection. "The court has final approval and the right to make sure the buyer has the capability and the desire," said Arlan Ettinger, president of Guernsey's. "It's like getting a puppy," he added. It takes a great deal of care. The auction is scheduled for April 11th, the hundredth anniversary of the ship's departure from Southampton, England. All the relics were salvaged from the debris field surrounding the ship by R.M.S. Titanic Inc., a court-appointed salvaging company that conducted seven expeditions between 1987 and 2004. The wrecked ship itself has been treated as a sacred object and has remained untouched. Brian Wainger, spokesperson for Premier Exhibitions, R.M.S. Titanic's parent company, said the primary requirements are that the buyer keep the artifacts together and make them available to the public. He said that the company takes its role as steward of this historical collection very seriously, adding that it would not rule out the possibility of conducting a private sale if that was in the best interests of the collection. The lot was appraised for $189 million in 2007, but Mr. Ettinger said that it is "virtually impossible to appraise" because nothing like it has ever been sold before. In addition, the results of a research expedition undertaken in 2010 that include a mapping of the site and a picture and video archive, and that are part of the sale, were not considered by the appraisers. The announcement was made from the hanger deck of the aircraft carrier that serves as the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, which is docked about a mile from the pier where the Titanic was supposed to land in the spring of 1912. The luxury liner, carrying more than 2,200 passengers and crew, sank after hitting an iceberg 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland. More than 1,500 people died. About a dozen items, including a wool vest, china, a diamond necklace spelling out the name Amy and a second class ticket, were displayed in a glass case. The tanning process used at the time rendered leather water repellant, so anything that was enclosed in a leather case was preserved, said Katherine Seymour, Premier's vice-president of communications. P.H. Nargeloet, director of Premier's underwater research, who participated in all seven expeditions, said that the first time his team viewed the wreckage, everyone was struck silent. "I was thinking about the construction of the Titanic, and the tragedy," he said in a thick French accent. The underwater temperature was about 33 degrees, about the same temperature it would have been on the surface when the passengers were thrown into the water, he said. Mr. Nargeloet recalled putting his hand on the glass window of the submersible vehicle they used: "You could feel how cold the water was."