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Spanish Government confirms its interest in the Odyssey treasure find
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By h.b. - May 2, 2008 - 7:48 AM
The 'Odyssey Explorer' used to recover the treasure - Photo EFE
The Spanish Government has confirmed its aspirations over the treasure found and recovered by the United States company, Odyssey Marine Exploration.
‘It’s all ours’, said the General Director of Fine Arts, José Jiménez, who said that the silver coins and other items found in May 2007 can be claimed ‘with guarantees’ for the Spanish Government.
Jiménez said that after Spanish experts inspected some of the 500,000 silver coins, now thought to have come from the Spanish galleon ‘Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes’, off the Algarve coast in 1804, it was clear the treasure was from a boat of the Spanish Armada and Spain will recover it all.
The matter is now in the hands of a court in Tampa, Florida, with Odyssey claiming that the boat was not engaged in military action when she sank and therefore cannot be considered to be a boat belonging to the Spanish state, and therefore they are not obliged to return the cargo. Odyssey claims that only descendants of those on board the vessel have any claim.
The Spanish Government is having none of that, and a formal press conference to explain the Spanish position is being organised for May 8.
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