Cultural Heritage Lawyer Rick St. Hilaire: Court Orders Odyssey Marine to Return Treasure to Spain

http://culturalheritagelawyer.blogspot.com/2012/02/court-orders-odyssey-marine-to-return.html

Februray 2, 2012

A Spanish galleon.

The U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has denied Odyssey Marine’s motion to stay a decision ordering the commercial salvor to return coins and objects to Spain. The items were taken from a sunken 19^th century Spanish galleon discovered by Odyssey in 2007 “lying at a depth of approximately 1100 meters, beyond the territorial waters or contiguous zone of any sovereign nation approximately 100 miles west of the Straits of Gibraltar,” according to court records.

The case has persisted since April 9, 2007. That is when Odyssey Marine filed a complaint in federal district court in Tampa, Florida under admiralty and maritime law (known as an admiralty in rem action). The salvor argued that it should either own the shipwrecked vessel under the law of finds (a type of “finders keepers” claim) or it should be entitled to “a liberal salvage award” from the vessel under the law of salvage. Odyssey lost the case, and the case now captioned as Odyssey Marine Exploration v. Kingdom of Spain et al. continues.

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Cultural Heritage Lawyer Rick St. Hilaire: Court Orders Odyssey Marine to Return Treasure to Spain