MADRID, FEBRUARY 10 - Treasure found at sea in 2007 on board a sunken
ship, the "Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes", which sank in 1804 off the
coast of Portugal in a battle with the English fleet, has been ordered
to be returned to the Spanish government according to a ruling by the
U.S. Supreme Court. The highest court of appeals in the U.S. rejected
the latest appeal by Odyssey Marine Exploration, a company
specialising in 'treasure hunting', report sources from the Spanish
Culture Ministry today cited by Europa Press. With the decision, the
high court ordered the company that recovered the treasure, which
included 15 tonnes of gold and silver coins, to return it to the
Spanish government within 10 days, starting from the time in which the
Atlanta court of appeals officially communicates its rejection of the
appeal made to the Court of Tampa, where the case was heard. Sources
in the ministry expressed "great satisfaction" over the ruling and
underlined how "Odyssey's arguments had been rejected in all legal"
venues.
The decision by the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by the
treasure-hunting company. The ruling stated that the Spanish ship from
which the treasure of 500,000 ancient gold and silver coins was
extracted was a ship owned by the state and not a merchant vessel,
making it the property of its state of origin. The precious treasure
was recovered by Odyssey on May 18 2007 in the Atlantic Ocean off the
coast of Spain and taken to the United States on a private airplane.
The North American treasure hunters renamed the sunken ship 'Black
swan', stating that the ship was not on a military mission when it
sunk. But an investigation opened by the Spanish government in
collaboration with Armada, the national archaeological museum, the
Royal Historical Academy and other institutions, allowed for it to be
established that the sunken ship was the 'Nuestra Senora de la
Mercedes', which was part of the Spanish fleet and that it was found
in Spanish territorial waters.
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