Spanish government 'suspicious' of deep-sea treasure find

MADRID, Spain: Authorities in Spain are looking into whether a U.S. company can be charged with stealing Spanish heritage for excavating colonial-era treasure from a sunken British warship.

Odyssey Marine Exploration said Friday it had discovered the ship — along with gold and silver coins worth an estimated US$500 million (€371 million) — somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean.

The treasure-hunting company would not say exactly where the ship was, citing security concerns, but said the site was outside any country's territorial waters.

Spain's Culture Ministry said it thought the statement was "suspicious," after Odyssey had sought permission to explore Spanish waters for the wreck of a British ship, according to the national news agency Efe.

Spain granted the company permission in January to search for the HMS Sussex, which sank in a 1694 storm off Gibraltar while leading a British fleet into the Mediterranean Sea for war against France.

That permission was only for exploration, however, and did not extend to extraction, the ministry said, according to Efe. Odyssey had previously been searching off the Spanish coast, but suspended operations there in 2005 after complaints from the Spanish government.

A chartered cargo jet recently landed in the U.S. to unload plastic containers packed with 500,000 coins — expected to fetch an average of US$1,000 (€742) each from collectors and investors.

The Spanish Civil Guard, on request from the government, is investigating whether the company could be charged with theft of Spanish heritage if the haul came from a ship found in Spanish waters, Efe reported. Calls to the ministry on Sunday went unanswered.

Odyssey, based in Tampa, Florida, said it was attempting to recover the HMS Sussex under a deal with the British government — the first such public-private arrangement for an archaeological excavation of a sovereign warship.

Historians believe the 157-foot (48-meter) warship was carrying 9 tons of gold coins to buy the loyalty of the Duke of Savoy, a potential ally in southeastern France.

Odyssey had said it believed those coins also could fetch more than US$500 million (€371 million).

Under the agreement with Britain, Odyssey would share any finds with the British government. The company would keep 80 percent of the first US$45 million (€34 million) reaped, and about 50 percent of proceeds thereafter.

Source : www.iht.com