Thousands of artefacts recovered from the Titanic¹ are to be sold at auction² 100 years after the ocean liner sank.

远洋班轮泰坦尼克号沉没百年之后，数千件打捞上来的艺术品将被拍卖。

maiden³ crossing of the Atlantic Ocean" src="http://www.enread.com/upimg/allimg/111230/1_111230081627_1.jpg" width="304" height="171" />
The Titanic, bound for New York City, sank on her maiden crossing of the Atlantic Ocean
Valued in 2007 at $189m (£121m), the items will be sold by Guernsey Auctioneers in New York on 15 April.

The collection of 5,500 items, to be sold as a single lot, were recovered over seven expeditions to the North Atlantic wreck⁴ between 1987 and 2004.

On 10 April 1912 the Titanic set sail from England. After five days it hit an iceberg⁵ and sank, killing⁶ 1,517 people.

The seller, RMS Titanic, is the only company legally allowed to retrieve⁷（检索，恢复） objects from the Titanic's wreck site.

RMS Titanic's president, Christopher Davino, said: "We expect to identify a buyer capable of serving as a proper steward⁸（管家，乘务员） of the collection and the wreck site, while continuing to build upon the work that RMST and its partners in the oceanographic and archaeological communities have accomplished⁹."

Potential bidders¹¹ for the collection, for which individual items have not been listed, will be selected through an application process that is open until 1 April.

However, a Guernsey Auctioneers spokeswoman told the Associated Press news agency that a preview of the lot would be held next week.

Final sale to any bidder¹⁰ must be eventually approved by a federal court judge in the US state of Virginia, according to a filing for the auction lot at the US Securities and Exchange Commission submitted on 23 December.