Spain claims sunken colonial-era treasure

The Spanish government has filed claims in a US federal court over a shipwreck that a Florida firm found laden with a colonial-era treasure, an attorney said today.

If the vessel was Spanish or was removed from that country’s waters, any treasure would belong to Spain, said James Goold, an attorney representing the government.

“It’s a very well established principle under Spanish, US and international law that a government such as the kingdom of Spain has not abandoned its sunken ships or sunken property, and that a company like Odyssey Marine Exploration may not conduct recovery operations without authorisation by the government,” he said.

“The kingdom of Spain has not authorised any such operations by Odyssey, and by these legal actions it will see the return of any Spanish property Odyssey has recovered,” he said of the claims filed yesterday.

Odyssey Marine Exploration CEO John Morris said in a statement today: “Such a move was anticipated by Odyssey and is considered normal in Admiralty cases.”

The company has previously said Odyssey would notify all claimants once it conclusively determined the ship’s identity. Odyssey said it was not found in Spanish territorial waters.

Odyssey announced two weeks ago that it had discovered a shipwreck containing 500,000 gold and silver coins somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean.