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U.S. lawyer James Goold is representing
the Spanish government
the Spanish government
Spain Claims 200-Year-Old Sunken Treasure
by
Anne Szustek
Spain argues ownership of a naval ship shot down in 1804 and its $500 million of coins, found recently by a Miami diving company.
30-Second Summary
Miami-based diving company Odyssey Marine Exploration announced in May 2007 that it had discovered a shipwreck in the Atlantic. The boat contained some 500,000 silver coins.
Odyssey Marine Exploration shipped the artifacts to the United States from the British protectorate of Gibraltar. According to a Voice of America clip, the company is keeping the exact location of the discovery a secret.
Spain maintains that the boat in question is the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, a Spanish navy vessel that had more than 200 passengers aboard when it was sunk by the British. Spain has filed a formal complaint with a U.S. federal court in Miami to recover the boat and its contents on the premise that warships remain the property of their flag country.
Jose Jimenez, the director general of Spain’s Ministry of Culture, told the AP, “We are talking about the … human remains of Spanish naval servicemen who died on board which have been illegally disturbed.”
UNESCO’s Draft Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage, passed in August 2001, stipulates that shipwrecks submerged for more than 100 years “shall not be commercially exploited, and that “states parties shall ensure that proper respect is given to all human remains located in maritime waters.”
The sunken ship has also sparked an insider-trading dispute with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Ernesto Tapanes, an oceanographer doing consulting aboard the Odyssey’s exploration vessel, violated an agreement that forbade him from trading the exploration company’s stock. But he still bought up Odyssey stock, dumping it once the shares had doubled in price after the announcement of the discovery.
Odyssey Marine Exploration shipped the artifacts to the United States from the British protectorate of Gibraltar. According to a Voice of America clip, the company is keeping the exact location of the discovery a secret.
Spain maintains that the boat in question is the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, a Spanish navy vessel that had more than 200 passengers aboard when it was sunk by the British. Spain has filed a formal complaint with a U.S. federal court in Miami to recover the boat and its contents on the premise that warships remain the property of their flag country.
Jose Jimenez, the director general of Spain’s Ministry of Culture, told the AP, “We are talking about the … human remains of Spanish naval servicemen who died on board which have been illegally disturbed.”
UNESCO’s Draft Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage, passed in August 2001, stipulates that shipwrecks submerged for more than 100 years “shall not be commercially exploited, and that “states parties shall ensure that proper respect is given to all human remains located in maritime waters.”
The sunken ship has also sparked an insider-trading dispute with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Ernesto Tapanes, an oceanographer doing consulting aboard the Odyssey’s exploration vessel, violated an agreement that forbade him from trading the exploration company’s stock. But he still bought up Odyssey stock, dumping it once the shares had doubled in price after the announcement of the discovery.
Headline Link: ‘Spain Lays Claim to Sunken Treasure’
Officials from Odyssey Marine Exploration have told the AP “that they believe the court will award them most of the treasure.”
Source: Hartford Courant (Associated Press)
Video: ‘Largest Shipwreck Treasure Find Ever’
“Black Swan” is the code name Odyssey Marine Exploration gave to its Atlantic find. This clip, filmed last summer, says that the coins found on board where shipped to an undisclosed U.S. location. The company—the only publicly traded treasure search firm in the United States—is also keeping mum as to the original whereabouts of the shipwreck to prevent others from combing the area. The company has a deal with the Walt Disney Company to capitalize further on the public’s interest in pirates and loot.
Source: Voice of America on YouTube
Background: Insider trading; case to be used as precedent
Ernesto Tapanes, who served as an oceanography consultant aboard the Odyssey Marine Exploration, was indicted by the Securities and Exchange Commission for charges relating to insider trading. Following the discovery of the disputed ship, Tapanes and other crew members were asked on April 4, 2007 by the exploration company to sign an agreement of confidentiality about the find, as well as not to trade company stock. From that day forward, Tapanes began buying $150,000 worth of Odyssey stock. Between April 4 and May 15, 2007, the price per share floated between $3.58 and $4.35. After the discovery of the treasure was announced on May 18, 2007, Odyssey stock went up to $8.32 per share. When it hit $9.45, Tapanes sold his shares.
Source: The Tampa Tribune
Two Spanish ships that sank off the coast of Virginia, the Juno and La Galga, were awarded to Spain on July 21, 2000, by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Spain plans to use this case as a precedent for the Odyssey Marine case, but Web site The Hidden Galleon argues that this is faulty reasoning: “Jurisdiction required that there actually should have been Spanish property arrested and brought into court before the rights of Spain could be adjudicated.” According to the Web site, there was no historical proof that the boats were indeed Spanish.
Source: The Hidden Galleon
Related Topic: ‘Dispute over Sunken Treasure Wages on 10 Years After Discovery’
In 1989, Ohio-based Columbus-America Discovery Group discovered the ruins of the Central America off the coast of South Carolina. Dubbed “the Titanic of its day,” the boat went down during a hurricane in 1857. Columbus-America originally claimed that the gold coins and bars found in the ship were worth some $1 billion and agreed to have famed New York auction house Christie’s sell some of it. But according to Virginia federal court documents, Columbus-America “reneged on its deal.” In 1998, Christie’s filed a suit against the company. The Ohio-based firm stood to lose money on the deal.
Source: Professional Shipwreck Explorers Association
Reference: Shipwrecks and maritime law
The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization ruled in its Draft Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage that any vessels, artifacts and human remains continuously under water for 100 years or more fall into the category of “underwater cultural heritage,” which cannot be “commercially exploited.” The full text of the convention is available as a PDF document.
Source: UNESCO (PDF document)
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