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Jun 8, 2009 02:05 PM | 30
Did an American treasure hunter plunder Spain’s cultural heritage? Or should private companies have a right to profit from historic vessels sunk in international waters?
Those were the questions that a federal judge in Tampa, Florida took into account last week before ordering Odyssey Marine Exploration to turn over almost $500 million in gold and silver coins salvaged from a Spanish shipwreck.
“The judge saw that the ship and its contents belong to Spain,” Angeles Gonzales-Sine, Spain’s minister of culture, told the Telegraph, “It’s a hugely important ruling and one that will set a precedent for future claims.”
Odyssey, which has been featured on the Discovery Channel’s Treasure Hunters, is the most sophisticated and well-financed treasure-hunting outfit on the planet and the only one that is publicly traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange. In March 2007, the company recovered more than 500,000 gold and silver coins from a vessel code-named “Black Swan” and hauled them back to their base in Florida. An inspiration to treasure hunters everywhere, the Spanish government calls the Odyssey “21st century pirates.” Spain demanded return of the treasure from a vessel they believe to be Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, which the British sunk off of Portugal in 1804.
The case comes at a time when public entities are seeking a reckoning for their lost cultural and scientific heritage around the world. According to Smithsonian Magazine, legal battles over dinosaur fossils are on the rise pitting amateur prospectors and collectors against government agencies. The Republic of Peru is currently battling Yale University for the return of artifacts that archaeologist Hiram Bingham brought back from Machu Piccu in the early 20th century. Indeed, Spain’s case against Odyssey is complicated by the fact that the precious metals were originally extracted in Peru, which has also laid claim to the precious cargo.
"The question is, just because you're the first one out there to get it, should you get to keep it — especially if it belongs to someone else?" James Delgado, director of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University told the Associated Press.
Since Wednesday's ruling, Odyssey’s stock (OMEX) dropped by over 50 percent. But in a statement posted on their website, the company has vowed to appeal the decision and expressed optimism it they would prevail.
“We have said all along that legal issues with shipwrecks are complicated,” Odyssey chief executive Gregg Stemm told the AP, “and it may take awhile to work them out.”
Image of Odyssey Explorer courtesy graybags60 via Flickr.
Image of Spanish coins said to be identical to ones salvaged by Odyssey courtesy Andres Lara/Spanish Ministry of Culture.
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30 Comments
Add CommentThat blows! After X amount of time it should be fair game to anyone.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's pathetic. That money has been down there hundreds of years, was looted from Peru in the first place, and Spain made no effort to recover it on its own. It was in international waters, not in Spanish territory.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is just a money-grab by a cash-poor country. If anything, most of it should go back to Peru since that's who the Spanish stole it from in the first place.
Spain shouldn't be allowed to keep the "booty" it was able to steal from the New World. The fact that some of it was lost at sea, and has been found and salvaged can hardly be defined as piracy. Let Spain fund their own recovery efforts to recover their "booty". Personally I think Spain should have the replicas of art treasures from the Americas in their museums and Mexico and Peru should be given back the originals. Lost at sea until you find it and then it is mine again??? What's up with that???
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDitto, EntilZha. Since when does a thief have property rights to his loot? Who re-pays the treasure hunters for the massive expense of finding and recovering this loot? The court has just become an accomplice to double-grand-larceny.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf they lose the appeal they should just put the loot back where they found it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat is lame!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI can't believe that the US courts would have them return the gold to Spain when they committed atrocities to get that gold in the first place.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy would any one country making this ruling? Wouldn't this be a United Nations issue? As everyone noted Spain, Peru and Mexico weren't looking, so the treasure was abandoned.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs a side note, the State of Florida previouly went after Mel Fisher after he found the Nuestra Señora de Atocha, the Santa Margarita, and the Henrietta Marie. It was the Supreme Court that ruled Florida had to return the artifacts because these ships were in International waters.
So, again, why is a Florida court making a ruling outside it's country's boundaries?
It would truly be awesome, should the appeals process fail, for all the relics to be floated out to an area close to the original recovery site and sunk. Then Spain can have their claim to it!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's ridiculous that Spain or Peru should have any claim to the relics. They obviously didn't care the ship was out there with such a large haul. I seem to remember it took Spain a while to even find any record of any Spanish vessel that was sunk in the region.
If you really cared enough for the relics, then you would have spent your own money to fund recovery efforts and not waited for someone else to finish their hard work only to steal it from them. Seriously, Spain, you stole it from Peru and now you're stealing it from the world.
Does make all the sense in the world to me. One continent conqueror looks after the interest of another.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDoes make all the sense in the world to me. One continent conqueror looks after the interest of another.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJeepers. What ever happened to finders keepers. I agree that if they lose the case they should throw it back into the sea!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSpain used the papulicy to steal from mesoamericans and now they are using lawyers to steal from salvagers, 500 years and the spainish government is still run by a bunch of thieves. Perhaps Spain should be tried for crimes againist humanity, as they still claim the fruits of their crimes.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis sort of pillage should be compared to the destruction of artefacts in Irak by the US army. Vast quantities of important material are no longer in the public domain as a result. This matter should also be judged, as the mesopotamium sites and their contents are also part of the world's cultural heritage. Similarly the pillage of Jewish treasures by the Nazis has still to be judged. The World needs this precedent to ban wartime pillage of all sorts.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSomething is wrong with the brain of that judge or he is getting paid off. International waters mean treasure is up for grabs.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisInternational waters mean that treasures there belong to the whole of humanity, as nobody owns the title deeds they cannot claim ownership.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe fact that this ship was abandoned by Spain, with no known attempt in salvaging since it went down, and now having been given rights over the wreck and its cargo, leaves much to be desired. Ingenuity and persistence from a prospector had yielded the find and thus, the salvors should have exclusivity, if not the right to claim the cargo as its price. Yet, governments are all too willingly engaged it taking over the booties found by others with meager justifications at hand. IT started with Florida and the Atocha remains, Spain has followed with the JUNO and now this wreck. Salvaging for treasure will soon become a thing of the past. This new ruling may very well set the pace for land treasures and underground explorations of mineral wealth as well.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI see four parties involved: Britain, Peru, Spain and the Odyssey. I believe that if it's important enough for Spain (or any of the other parties) to reclaim the loot then they will probably pay what it's worth. Let's not forget that the Odyssey has bills to pay and stockholders to report to.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"which the British sunk off of Portugal"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSpot two mistakes of grammar and win a prize!
It should go, if they're going to back date claims, to native tribes of South American who gave their lives as slaves land pirates known as the conquistadores.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs a rule any cargo in a warship belongs to its original country. Odyssey is being playing a game that cannot win. If it's in Spanish Territorial waters and it's in a Spanish warship then it belongs to Spain. I am glad justice prevails
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisis there anyone who can help me. we have have a spot that my grandfather told me that there is a treasure in their hectares and i witnees some of their stones have gold on it. we need someone who can finance for the said treasure. we dont have enough gadget to do so. so if someone is interested pls contact (+639186651788) or do mail me at virgendio@yahoo.com thanks
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisis there anyone who can help me. we have have a spot that my grandfather told me that there is a treasure in their hectares and i witnees some of their stones have gold on it. we need someone who can finance for the said treasure. we dont have enough gadget to do so. so if someone is interested pls contact (+639186651788) or do mail me at virgendio@yahoo.com thanks
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisis there anyone who can help me. we have have a spot that my grandfather told me that there is a treasure in their hectares and i witnees some of their stones have gold on it. we need someone who can finance for the said treasure. we dont have enough gadget to do so. so if someone is interested pls contact (+639186651788) or do mail me at virgendio@yahoo.com thanks
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisis there anyone who can help me. we have have a spot that my grandfather told me that there is a treasure in their hectares and i witnees some of their stones have gold on it. we need someone who can finance and have a gadget for the said treasure. we dont have enough gadget to do so. so if someone is interested pls contact (+639186651788) or do mail me at virgendio@yahoo.com thanks
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe Odyssey crew knew that what they were doing was iligal and they did it anyway counting later with the British support in Gibraltar.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe Spanish government denied the permit requested by the Odyssey for the rescue of the treasure before they start, but they did it anyway.
Spain has been one more time victimized by the Pirats Inc.
Will the hard work of the brave and entrepreneurial Oddesy team receive any compensation for their extraordinary efforts? Does Spain offer at least some payment in acknowledgment of the task they themselves did not have the ability or ambition to undertake?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCompensation ???
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe Spanish records indicate that the ship had 900,000 coins on board, and the Odissey crew claims they found only 500,000.
Where are the missing 400,000 ?
You Americans! ... all you think about is the value of your find and the money that it brings, to you, your country men or your economy ... this is not about the nasdaq worth or even who made the find - its about the historical significance. Spainsh treasures should be in spain, if you want them so bad , pay to seem them in museams...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNow that the precedent has been set, Spain should return the booty and value of the treasures they looted from cultures and countries of the Americas. Since they profited from the theft to grow their own empire at the destruction of the victims, they should return it in today's value. It might bankrupt them but at lesat they won't have to endure disease such as they introduced to the Americas.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this