A federal judge in Virginia has ruled that a company is entitled to the value of about 5,900 artifacts it salvaged during six expeditions to the Titanic.

U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith in Norfolk granted a salvage award to RMS Titanic Inc. late Thursday.

However, the judge postponed until next year a decision on whether to simply give the company title to the artifacts or sell them and turn the proceeds over to RMS, a subsidiary of Premier Exhibitions Inc. of Atlanta. The items are worth an estimated $110 million.

Until then, RMS can retain possession of the artifacts, which are being displayed in exhibitions around the world.

The Titanic sank in the North Atlantic off Newfoundland in April 1912, killing more than 1,500 of the 2,228 people onboard.