Spain claims ship’s $500 million booty
Posted on Friday, May 9, 2008
MADRID, Spain — Spain formally laid claim Thursday to a shipwreck that yielded a $ 500 million treasure, saying it has proof the vessel was Spanish.
Officials demanded the return of the booty recovered last year by a U. S. deep-sea exploration firm, saying the 19 th-century shipwreck at the heart of the dispute is the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes — a Spanish warship sunk by the British navy southwest of Portugal in 1804 with more than 200 people on board.
Tampa, Fla.-based Odyssey Marine Exploration had announced in May 2007 that it had discovered the wreck in the Atlantic — and its cargo of 500, 000 silver coins and other artifacts worth an estimated $ 500 million.
At the time, Odyssey said it did not know which ship it was, and flew the treasures back to Tampa without Spain’s knowledge, from an airport on the British colony of Gibraltar on Spain’s southwestern tip.
The Spanish government filed evidence in a Tampa federal court to support its claim.
Washington-based lawyer James Goold, representing the Spanish government in the case, said U. S. Judge Mark Pizzo will convene the two parties to review the case before deciding who gets to keep the treasure.
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