Southampton City Council (SCC) has performed a u-turn on its plans to sell off two renowned works of art as part of a bid to help raise fund for city's proposed new Titanic museum.

Last year, the council revealed its intention to sell Sir Alfred Munnings' After the Race painting and Eve by French sculptor August Rodin, which were valued at around £5.5m. However, SCC cabinet member for economic development Royston Smith told the BBC that the plans had been dropped and had only been considered as a last resort to help fund the Titanic scheme as part of a wider cultural quarter in the city.

Smith told the BBC: "We didn't have overwhelming support so we have had to re-look at it and rethink our plans. The selling of the art work was always the last resort... because we needed to do it, we had a time-scale of the 2012 commemoration coming up." Plans for a multi-million pound Sea City Museum, which will house the Titanic attraction, have already been handed a first-round pass worth £499,000 by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) towards a full grant of £4.5m.

Designed by London-based architects Wilkinson Eyre, the first phase of the Sea City Museum is due to open in 2012 to mark the 100th anniversary of the Titanic's sinking.