A sunken treasure worth tens of billions sure sounds like a dream.
However, that is now a reality about to be salvaged from the bottom of the Caribbean sea – but that is already causing waves in dry land, where an American company is suing the Colombian government.
The sunken Spanish warship that lay undiscovered at the bottom of the ocean for centuries is spurring a modern-day legal battle over who has the rights to its antique treasures.
Business Insider reported:
More than 300 years after the San José went down in flames, a US salvage company is suing the Colombian government for 'half the ship's treasures', claiming that it discovered the wreck first, back in 1981.
The US salvage company Sea Search Armada claims to have found debris from the San José wreck first, and handed over the coordinates of the discovered debris to the Colombian government.
Search Armada also claims that it had an agreement to receive 'half the ship's treasure', according to the company's December 2022 notice of arbitration.
The Colombian government disputed the company 's claims, saying that the ship wasn't even at the coordinates handed over by the company.
Colombia claims to have found it only in 2015, but the coordinates have never been made public, and deemed a state secret.
The south-American country now argues that the ship and its treasures are a national heritage item that will be kept in the country.
Sea Search Armada, for its part, alleges that the Colombian navy simply discovered parts of the same debris field it first found in 1981.
Photos and videos of the ship debris show fine china, coins, and cannons littered across the ocean floor where the San José sank.
The mission to recover the old sunken ship has now been launched by the Colombian government.
New York Post reported:
Petro wants to bring ship to the surface before his term is up in 2026. He requested that a public-private partnership be formed to see it through, according to Minister of Culture Juan David Correa.
Built in 1698, the ship was the flagship of Spain's treasure fleet and would routinely travel between Peru and Spain carrying gems and precious metals.
The post The San Jose Galleon, the 'Biggest Sunken Treasure in History', Hasn't Been Salvaged Yet – But It's Already Causing Dispute in Court appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.