TAMPA, Fla. — Florida deep-sea explorers who raised an estimated $500 million treasure from the 200-year-old wreck of a Spanish galleon should give all the loot back to Spain, a federal magistrate judge said.
But the two-year tug-of-war over the 17 tons of silver coins and other artifacts from what is believed to be the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes y las Animas is likely far from over.
Odyssey Marine Exploration said it will oppose Wednesday’s written recommendation by U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Pizzo, which will be considered by another federal judge who will issue an order later.
Odyssey CEO Greg Stemm said today the company is prepared to keep fighting.
“This case addresses some very significant legal issues, so in the beginning it became fairly clear it was going to go to the appellate court level,” Stemm said.
Pizzo’s written recommendation said the wreck is almost certainly that of the Mercedes, a navy galleon that sank in the Atlantic Ocean west of Portugal in 1804. He accepted the Spanish government’s argument that it had never expressly surrendered ownership of the ship and its contents.
Odyssey has argued that it still lacks conclusive proof of the ship’s identity and disputed the Spanish’s government ownership of the valuable cargo.
“We are very happy,” Spanish Culture Minister Angeles Gonzalez-Sinde told reporters today. “This decision is very important. I am glad the judge has really seen that the ship and the treasure belong to Spain.”
She said the ruling sets “a very important precedent for all future underwater finds.”
Odyssey created an international stir when it announced in May 2007 that the 500,000 silver coins and other artifacts had been raised from an Atlantic Ocean wreck and flown back to Tampa. Spain then went to U.S. District Court claiming ownership of the treasure if it is in any way connected to the country’s national heritage.
Some in the Spanish government have called the publicly traded company 21st-century pirates, and twice in the months after the 2007 announcement, ships from Spain’s Civil Guard seized Odyssey ships off the Spanish coast. Both ships and their crews were released within a week.
The company’s relationship with the British government has been more cordial. Odyssey had already negotiated an agreement with British officials regarding the search for the HMS Sussex, which sank in the western Mediterranean in 1694 with gold coins aboard and has never been found.
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