Jan 25 2008
Whose Treasure Is It Anyways?
MSNBC reported on Thursday that the government of Spain is taking Florida treasure-hunting company, Odyssey Marine Exploration, to court. Odyssey did what all treasure-hunting companies hope to do - FOUND an actual treasure.
They managed to locate a shipwreck with 17 tons of silver coin - booty estimated to be worth over $500 million dollars. The government of Spain is convinced that the shipwreck is “Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, a Spanish galleon sunk by a British warship off Portugal in October 1804.” They have essentially said that the ship was theirs and they never gave up the rights to any recovered treasure. Essentially, it looks like Odyssey took all the risk and recovered the treasure. Now Spain wants the reward? This hardly seems fair to me. What do you think?