Railings on Titanic's iconic bow have broken off and fallen to sea floor

Immortalized by Jack and Rose in the famous movie scene, a significant part of the railing on the Titanic’s bow has fallen off the iconic ship, new images show.

“We are saddened by this loss,” RMS Titanic Inc., a company that has the salvage rights to Titanic, said in a statement released alongside the pictures. “Collapse is inevitable,” it said, adding that a 15-foot-long section on the port side had fallen to the seabed.

The expedition team discovered this “significant” change in July and found that the fallen section was lying on the seafloor directly below, the statement said, adding that over the coming weeks and months, the team would conduct a “more thorough review” of the ship’s condition and the changes over time.

The Titanic sank April 15, 1912, after hitting an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York. More than 1,500 people died.

The wreck site was discovered in September 1985, more than 12,000 feet below sea level. It lies in two parts, with the bow and the stern separated by about 2,600 feet.

The bow featured in the scene from the 1997 movie of the same name, where Jack had his “King of the World” moment and held Rose over the front of the ship.

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“The drastic change in the celebrated image is a reminder that TITANIC is deteriorating,” RMS Titanic Inc. said in an Instagram post Sunday.

Richard Howells, emeritus professor of cultural sociology at King’s College London, told NBC News on Monday that it was “no surprise that the physical wreck is deteriorating,” as “it has been for years.”

It was “remarkable that 112 years after the event, the Titanic is still news,” he said, adding that the railings were “really only ‘iconic’ because they appeared in that famous scene in James Cameron’s feature film.” 

“So, the latest Titanic news is based on the deteriorating remains of a real ship but set against the background of something that only happened in the popular imagination. That’s myth in action in the 21st century,” he said.

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In slightly more positive news, RMS Titanic Inc. said on Instagram that a 2-foot-tall bronze statuette of the Roman goddess Diana, which served as the centerpiece sitting atop the fireplace mantle in the first-class lounge in the ship, had been rediscovered.

Based on the original Diana of Versailles at the Louvre Museum, it has been resting upright on the ocean floor for 112 years.

RMS Titanic Inc. conducted a ninth expedition to the wreck site in July, 14 years after its last effort.

The team took more than 2 million photos in a bid to document the ship's condition.