Two military planes carrying 17 tons of silver and gold coins recovered from a Spanish warship sunk in an 1804 gun battle landed in Spain today, ending a 200-year journey brings treasure from the bottom of the ocean to a Florida courtroom.
The planes landed with 594,000 coins and other artifacts recovered after a five-year legal dispute with Florida-based salvage company Odyssey Marine Exploration, which brought the cargo to America in May 2007.
State broadcaster RTVE said once the treasure was unloaded from the plane, it would be transported to an undisclosed location.
Claim: These are among nearly 600,000 coins recovered from a sunken Spanish galleon that will be returned to Spain today after a lengthy legal battle
Calm: Cargo of gold and silver coins is about to be lowered onto the runway after more than 200 years
Home at last: part of the treasure from the 19th-centuary Spanish galleon that landed in Madrid today following a long legal battle
The deep-sea explorers found the treasure in a shipwreck, believed to be Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, off Portugal’s Atlantic coast.
British warships had sunk it as it came to Spain as part of a fleet that had traveled from South America. The Mercedes was believed to have had 200 people aboard when it exploded and sank.
Odyssey made international headlines when it discovered the wreck, estimating the trove to be worth as much as $500 million to collectors, making the haul one of the richest ever.
Watch: A member of the Spanish Ministry of Culture records one of the coins from the sunken Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes
The Tampa-based rescue agency used a remote-controlled submersible to explore the depths and carry items including cannonballs and other metal fragments to a floating ship and argued that it was Enjoy the treasure.
The Spanish government challenged the Odyssey’s ownership in U.S. District Court shortly after the coins were returned to Tampa, based on documents from the country’s naval archives listing the Mercedes is a naval warship.
International treaties generally held that warships sunk in battle would be protected from treasure seekers, and the Spanish government successfully argued that it had never relinquished ownership of the ship. vessel or its contents.
A federal district court first ruled in 2009 that US courts did not have jurisdiction and ordered the treasure’s return.
Odyssey subsequently lost every federal court attempt to keep the treasure, with the Spanish government viewing them as modern-day pirates plundering the nation’s cultural heritage.
On Thursday, the Peruvian government made an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to block the transfer of the treasure to give that country more time to argue in federal court its claim to ownership. legal property.
Peru said gold and silver were mined, refined and minted in that country, which at the time was part of the Spanish empire. The appeal was referred to Justice Clarence Thomas, who did not say when he would respond.
The US court had previously rejected the compensation claim of the descendants of Peruvian merchants who owned the coins in the Mercedes.
“Peru is making the same arguments that have been rejected at every level of U.S. court,” said James Goold, a Washington lawyer representing the Spanish government. “There is absolutely nothing new in it.”
Eyeing it up: A member of Spain’s Culture Ministry looks at some of artifacts as the final stages of the legal battle comes to a close
History in the hand: Spain has said that the coins are classified as national heritage and must stay inside the country, where they will be displayed in one or more museums
The head spokesman for Peru’s embassy in Washington, Rodolfo Pereira, declined to comment yesterday on the appeal.
Spanish officials said last week the planes would leave by Friday, and MacDill authorities planned a news conference on the base Friday morning with the ambassador and other officials.
The planes were expected to be already loaded with pallets holding the white plastic buckets filled with coins.
Odyssey – which uses a remote-controlled submersible to explore the depths and bring the tiniest of items to the surface – had previously argued that as the finder it was entitled to all or most of the treasure.
The Spanish government filed a claim in a U.S. District Court soon after the coins were flown back to Tampa, contending that it never relinquished ownership of the ship or its contents.
Trove: This picture shows hundreds of the silver coins recovered by Odyssey from the seabed off the coast of Portugal
Hunting the loot: Crew members of the Florida-based Odyssey Marine Exploration used a remote-controlled submersible to bring the coins to the surface
A federal district court first ruled in 2009 that the U.S. courts didn’t have jurisdiction, and ordered the treasure returned.
Odyssey had argued in federal court that the wreck was never positively identified as the Mercedes. And if it was that vessel, the company contended, then the ship was on a commercial trade trip – not a sovereign mission – at the time it sank, meaning Spain would have no firm claim to the cargo.
International treaties generally hold that warships sunk in battle are protected from treasure seekers. Odyssey lost every round in federal courts trying to hold on to the treasure.
In a court hearing on February 17, the company was ordered by a federal judge to give Spain access to the treasure this week to ready it for transport.
How it all started: This painting shows the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes being sunk by the Royal Navy as it makes it way back from South America in 1804
Odyssey said it would no longer oppose Spain’s claims. Meanwhile, the court also ordered that Odyssey had to turn over some coins and other artifacts that are still in Gibraltar.
The company has blamed politics for the courts’ decisions since the U.S. government publicly backed Spain’s efforts to get the treasure returned.
In several projects since then, Odyssey has worked with the British government on efforts to salvage that nation’s sunken ships, with agreements to share what it recovers.
The company has said in earnings statements that it has spent $2.6million salvaging, transporting, storing and conserving the treasure.
But it is not expected to receive any compensation from the Spanish government for recovering it because the European nation has maintained that the company should not have tried to do so in the first place.
Goold previously has likened the salvage of shipwrecks for profit to diving for souvenirs on the wreck of the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
In Madrid, the Spanish Culture Ministry recently said the coins are classified as national heritage and – as such – must stay inside that country where they will be exhibited in one or more Spanish museums.
It ruled out the idea of the treasure being sold to ease Spain’s national debt in a country grappling with a 23 percent jobless rate and a stagnant economy.
