June 17th, 2013 by Piper Smith
In 2012, a haul of gold and silver coins from a sunken Spanish galleon arrived in Spain after FIVE years of legal ownership battles. The American salvaging firm, Odyssey Marine Exploration, found 17 tons of coins in a wreck off the Atlantic coast of Portugal in 2007. After estimating, it was decided that this sunken treasure amounted to nearly five hundred million dollars. The Spanish government believed that this treasure was a part of their cultural heritage and should, therefore, be given the treasure. After five painful years, an American Federal judge ruled that Odyssey give Spain access to the recovered treasure. When the treasure was flown to Spain, Spain’s American ambassador oversaw the unloading of the valuable cargo and aided in its placement into Spanish museum exhibits.
Picture caption: Recovering and maintaining the recovered gold and silver coins.
