<P> Titanic Ventures Inc., a Connecticut - based consortium, co-sponsored a survey and salvage operation in 1987 with the French oceanographic agency IFREMER . The expedition produced an outcry, not least because of the damage that it caused to the wreck . When the crow's nest bell was pulled from the mast, the crow's nest itself, where the lookouts first saw the iceberg, collapsed . A Titanic survivor, Eva Hart, was outspoken in her condemnation of what many saw as the looting of a mass grave: "To bring up those things from a mass sea grave just to make a few thousand pounds shows a dreadful insensitivity and greed . The grave should be left alone . They're simply going to do it as fortune hunters, vultures, pirates!" </P> <P> Public misgivings were increased when, on 28 October 1987, a glitzy television program titled Return to the Titanic Live was broadcast from the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie in Paris with Telly Savalas hosting . In front of a live TV audience, a valise recovered from the sea bed was opened, revealing a number of personal items apparently belonging to Richard L. Beckwith of New York, who survived the sinking . A safe was also opened, revealing a few items of memorabilia and some soggy banknotes . The tone of the event has been described by one commentator as "unsympathetic, lack (ing) dignity and finesse, and (with) all the superficial qualities of a' media event' ." The TV critic of The New York Times, John Corry, called the event "a combination of the sacred and profane and sometimes the downright silly ." Paul Heyer comments that it was "presented as a kind of deep sea striptease" and that Savalas "seemed haggard, missed several cues and at one point almost tripped over a chair". Controversy persisted after the broadcast when claims were made that the safe had been opened beforehand and that the show had effectively been a fraud . </P> <P> In the meantime, Marex - Titanic Inc. was formed in 1992 to launch an expedition to the Titanic . Marex - Titanic's CEO was James Kollar . The company was a subsidiary of Marex International, an international marine salvage firm located in Memphis, Tennessee . In 1992 Marex made a bid to seize control of the artefacts and the wreck itself by suing Titanic Ventures, arguing that the latter had abandoned its claim by not returning to the wreck since the 1987 expedition . It claimed a superior right of salvage based on a "pill bottle" and hull fragment that were said to have been retrieved by Marex . Marex simultaneously sent a vessel, the Sea Mussel, to carry out its own salvage operation . However, the Marex artefacts were alleged to have been illegally retrieved by the 1991 Russian - American - Canadian expedition and Marex was issued with a temporary injunction preventing it from carrying out its plans . In October 1992 the injunction was made permanent and the salvage claims of Titanic Ventures were upheld . The decision was later reversed by an appeals court but Marex's claims were not renewed . Even so, Titanic Ventures' control of the artefacts recovered in 1987 remained in question until 1993 when a French administrator in the Office of Maritime Affairs of the Ministry of Equipment, Transportation, and Tourism awarded the company title to the artefacts . </P> <P> In May 1993 Titanic Ventures sold its interests in the salvage operations and artefacts to RMS Titanic Inc., a subsidiary of Premier Exhibitions Inc. headed by George Tulloch and Arnie Geller . It had to go through a laborious legal process of having itself legally recognised as the sole and exclusive salvager of the wreck . Its claim was opposed for a while by the Liverpool and London Steamship Protection and Indemnity Association, Titanic's former insurer, but was eventually settled . It was awarded ownership and salvaging rights by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on 7 June 1994 in a ruling that declared the company to be the "salvor in possession" of the wreck . </P>

When was the titanic found and who found it