Locked in a 32-year legal battle over possibly the most valuable shipwreck ever discovered, the Colombian government Friday conceded that a United States salvage company is entitled to a 50% share.
Lawyers representing Colombia in Washington conceded that U.S. salvage company Sea Search Armada (SSA) was the rightful owner of half the proceeds of the San Jose treasure trove which could be worth as much as $17 billion.
“It was the first time they have ever admitted what the Colombian Constitutional Court ruled [in 1994],” SSA managing director Jack Harbeston told Colombia Reports.
The admission is the latest development in a saga which has been playing out since 1981 when
“We are 95% sure it is a wooden shipwreck down there,” Harbeston told Colombia Reports. “We are less sure it is the San Jose because we are not allowed to finish our expedition.”
“Their strategy was to declare that there was no property right, and they changed that right to a finder’s fee, which are legally very different things,” said the SSA managing director.
According to a 2011 statement from the Colombian embassy in Washington, the contract giving half the treasure to SSA “never existed.”
The salvors sued Colombia in 1994, and the Colombian Constitutional Court supported their claim, giving the company rights to 50% of the treasure.
However, according to SSA the Colombian government has “continued to deny” their right to half of the bounty, and repeatedly rejected the company’s attempts to bring it up.
“They refused every request we sent them, and when we said we were just going to go and finish the expedition, they threatened to intercept us with military force,” said Harbeston. “They said it was a matter of national sovereignty, and it was clear that they meant it.”
Friday’s admission came in
In 1980 the value of the treasure was estimated at between $3 and $10 billion. Because of the increased price of gold, the cache was valued at around $17 billion in 2010, and will be worth even more now according to Harbeston.
However it seems that the salvors may never see their long-awaited treasure in the flesh, according to the SSA director, who foresees the end of the debacle will be played out in court rather than a resumption of the expedition.
In fact, it is not certain that the shipwreck lying on the ocean floor off the coast of Cartagena, is even the San Jose and all its treasure.
“It isn’t anything that anyone I know would stake his life on, but it’s a good bet,” said Harbeston, who has already spent more than 30-years working on the assumption that it is the San Jose down there.
“I have no doubt that the government of Colombia believes it is the San Jose,” said the managing director. “N
- Interview with Jack Harbeston, managing director, Sea Search Armada
- Press release(SSA)
- Sea Search Armada apela fallo de tesoro hundido en aguas colombianas (El Tiempo)
- Court rules in favor of Colombia in holy grail shipwrecks case (Fox News)
- Galleon San Jose and the hunt for undersea treasure (Forbes)
- Sea Search busca en EE.UU. tumbar fallo sobre tesoro del San Jose (El Tiempo)
- US court sinks sunken treasure lawsuit against Colombia (Colombia Reports)