One of the most iconic and debated objects in the history of cinema is the driftwood panel that saved the character from Kate Winslet, Rose DeWitt Bukaterfrom the icy waters of the North Atlantic after the sinking of the legendary ocean liner in Titanic, but not to Jack Dawson interpreted by Leonardo Dicaprio.
In recent weeks it has become known that This controversial piece of wood has been sold at auction for more than USD 700,000.
This piece of the Titanic has always been known as a door, but the ornate structure was actually part of the first-class lounge entrance frame, he wrote. Heritage Auctions in the auction notes.
The role of the object in “great scene, great farewell”as the auction house had described it, presents Rose floating on the panel carved with floral motifs while Jack, after trying and failing to also try to get on, succumbs to the cold. When a rescue boat arrives, Rose she is forced to remove her hand from the frozen grip of Jackwhile uttering the famous line “I will never let you go, I promise.”teeth chattering, and swims toward his rescuers.
Heritage Auctions described the object as “auction king”, in an ironic reference to the film’s script. He ornate balsa panel had previously been exhibited in a Planet Hollywood in Orlando, Floridabefore being stored in its archives for almost two decades, the auction house said.
The piece was sold along with a list of other objects at the auction “Treasures of Planet Hollywood”which included items of memorabilia that were once displayed in locations of Planet Hollywood throughout the world and from its archives. These included pieces such as the Indiana Jones whip and the Cursed Temple and the ax from The Shining, among almost 1,600 lots in total.
The five-day auction raised USD15.7 millionaccording to a press release, but the floating panel of Titanic took the prize for being the piece with the highest price, far exceeding its initial price of $40,000 and selling for a total of USD 718,750 after a dynamic bidding war.
Various other objects Titanic were also put up for sale, including the chiffon evening dress in pastel tones that Rose used in the film the night of the sinking and the ship’s rudder, which were sold for USD 118,750 and USD 200,000 respectively.
The disappearance of the ocean liner remains a point of cultural fascination, more than a century later. A 2012 episode of the show Discovery Channel, “Mythbusters” infamously found that two people could have survived long enough on the panel, which measures approximately 2.4 meters long and just over 1 meter wide, if they had added a life jacket to increase the probability of floating. However, the director of Titanic, James Cameronhe told the program hosts, Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savagethat Jack I needed to die anyway.
In 2022, Cameronalong with a hypothermia expert, tried to end the debate once and for all, with a mock test to see if two people with the same body mass as Winslet and DiCaprio they really could have stayed afloat on a piece of wood the same size. The final answer was that it was not possible.
No additional testing of these theories was performed on the object before its sale, as the auction house chooses “handle all items with great care during transport and storage”commented Heritage Auctions. But its new owner, who has preferred to remain anonymous, could well be planning a day at the pool, drawn by the more than two-decade-old enigma.
