This story continues to show us the real need for an internationaltreaty that allows treasure hunting to be made viable. The outcomehere is a tragedy for the investors and worse for Spain since everyfurther recovery is simply going to be grabbed and tossed directlyinto a smelter.
A correct solution is to outright recognize discoverer's right andthen apply a transfer price for recovered material. I may needarbitration to settle it but that is common anyway. The point isthat any transfer price must recognize fair market value andlegitimate costs including a reasonable allowance for archeologicaloversight not to be abused either.
The right to pay can even be transferred on as institutions aroundthe world can then directly participate.
It is easy to establish a melt price for a gold coin that is easilyhonored. It is also quite worthless if it cannot be transferred inits present condition.
That is the easy problem. Way more important we want archeologicalartifacts to also be identified as to provenance and the way to dothis is to establish a fair market for provenance and again torecognize discovery as ownership. Do that and the discoverers willmore anal than any archeologist. That way the institutionsautomatically have first dibs and a healthy market establishes valueand this then leads to artifacts already out there resurfacing.
As I learned a long time ago in the mining exploration business, onlythe owner will show up on a property choked with thorny vegetation ina howling wind storm raining horizontally to help you channel samplea hungry looking rock face. If governments and archeologist can everlearn to trust the people we will be buried in fresh data, artifactsand detailed information matching the best work of indifferentstudents any day.
Spain shows off$500M shipwreck treasure
A worker of theministry holds up for photographers a silver coin from the shipwreckof a 1804 galleon, on its first display to the media at a ministrybuilding, in Madrid, Friday, Nov. 30, 2012 [Credit: AP/Daniel Ochoade Olza]
A block of encrustedsilver coins from the shipwreck of a 1804 galleon, on its firstdisplay to the media at a ministry building, in Madrid, Friday, Nov.30, 2012. Spanish cultural officials have allowed the first peep at16 tons (14.5 metric tons) of the shipwreck, 'Nuestra Senora de lasMercedes' a treasure worth an estimated $500 million that a U.S.salvage company gave up after a five-year international ownershipdispute [Credit: AP/Daniel Ochoa de Olza]
http://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.ca/2012/12/spain-shows-off-500m-shipwreck-treasure.html
Spanish culturalofficials allowed a first peek Friday at some of the 16 tons ofshipwreck treasure worth an estimated $500 million that a U.S.salvage company gave up this year after a five-year ownershipdispute.
Only a tiny portion ofthe haul from the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, a galleon that ankoff Portugal's Atlantic coast near the straits of Gibraltar in 1804,was shown to the media: 12 individual silver coins, a block ofencrusted silver coins stuck together after centuries underwater, twogold tobacco boxes and a bronze pulley.
Authoritieswho have been inventorying the treasure since it was flown fromFlorida to Spain in February said it will be transferred later thisyear from Madrid to the National Museum of Underwater Archaeology inthe Mediterranean city of Cartagena. Displays are expected to startnext year, with some items put on rotating temporary displays atmuseums across the country.
Thoughprevious estimates have put the value of the treasure at $500million, Spanish officials said they weren't trying to determine anamount because the haul is part of the nation's cultural heritage andcan never be sold under Spanish law.
"It'sinvaluable," said Elisa de Cabo, the Culture Ministry's deputydirector of national heritage. "How would you put a price on theMona Lisa?"
Spain tookpossession of the treasure after courts rejected arguments thatFlorida-based Odyssey Marine Exploration was entitled to all or mostof the treasure. De Cabo said Spanish authorities are still trying toconvince a judge in Tampa that the American company should also beforced to pay Spain's legal costs.
Officials said Fridaythat the weight of the treasure was not the 17 tons reported duringthe legal fight because that included a ton of sea water used to helppreserve many of the silver coins in storage containers.
The inventorycounted 574,553 silver coins and 212 gold coins.
Odyssey hadargued that the wreck was never positively identified as theMercedes. And if it was that vessel, the company contended, then theship was on a commercial trade trip — not a sovereign mission —at the time it sank, meaning Spain would have no firm claim to thecargo. International treaties generally hold that warships sunk inbattle are protected from treasure seekers.
Odyssey lostevery round in federal courts as the Spanish government painted thecompany as modern-day pirates. The company has said in earningsstatements that it has spent $2.6 million salvaging, transporting,storing and conserving the treasure.
The metalswere mined and the coins minted in the Andes, from places that arenow in Bolivia, Chile and Peru.
Spain overcamea last-minute effort by the Peruvian government to block the transferof the treasure back to Spain. Peru did not gain its independenceuntil 1824, but the country's lawyers argued it was more than asimple colony at the time because it was the local seat of theSpanish crown when the ship sank.
Spain's QueenSofia promised in a visit to Bolivia several months ago that some ofthe treasure would be lent to the country for display in museums.
Author: AlanClendenning | Source: Associated Press [December 01, 2012]
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