19th-century wreck filled with champagne bottles off-limits for treasure hunters

The wreckage is on the Baltic seabed about 20 nautical miles south of the Swedish isle of Oeland (Marek Cacaj/Baltictech via AP)

A shipwreck found off the southern coast of Sweden has a cargo of nearly 100 bottles of 19th-century champagne and mineral water – but no-one will be allowed to take any of the artefacts without proper authorisation, officials have said.

Though the wreck’s location has been known since 2016 and is registered in Sweden’s National Antiquities Office’s cultural environment, it was only on July 11 that Polish scuba divers found the precious cargo.