Spain’s government said on Tuesday it had proof of the Spanish origin of treasure recovered from a wreck in the Atlantic by deep-sea explorer firm Odyssey, and demanded the United States company hand it back.
”Spain yesterday [Monday] presented to the court in Tampa [Florida] the proof” that the treasure came from the wreck of the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes, the culture ministry said in a statement.
The ship, which sank off southern Portugal with a massive cargo of gold and silver, is our ”historical patrimony and also constitutes the tomb of 250 seamen and Spanish citizens”, it said.
The wreck is protected under the principle of ”sovereign immunity” which applies to ships belonging to states as well as to wrecks, and which ”bars unauthorised intrusion or exploitation for commercial ends”, the ministry said.
It said Odyssey carried out the undersea search ”in secret and after having been warned of the ban”.
Spain now ”demands the restitution of all the objects taken from the site”.
The company, based in Tampa, Florida, announced in May 2007 that it had found half a million silver coins and hundreds of gold objects, somewhere in ”international waters in the Atlantic Ocean”.
But Spain became suspicious after it took the treasure back to the US via the British territory of Gibraltar, off southern Spain, and kept the location of the wreck secret.
Spain suspects Odyssey found the treasure in its territorial waters, and filed claims with a Florida court, arguing that if the shipwreck was a Spanish military vessel — instead of a private commercial ship — or if it was located in Spanish waters, any treasure would belong to Spain. – AFP
