MADRID — Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc.'s 17 ton-haul of sunken treasure from the Atlantic Ocean came from a Spanish warship and must be returned to the country, a lawyer said after an inspection of the artifacts.
Spain expects the new evidence from the inspection will persuade an American court in Tampa, Fla., to order Odyssey to return the treasure without compensation, a lawyer for the government, James Goold, said at a press conference in Madrid yesterday.
"What Odyssey has done is morally and legally unacceptable," Mr. Goold said. The company "secretly stripped a Spanish ship of coins and other artifacts then tried to hide them by claiming that it did not know the identity of the ship."
Representatives of the Spanish government visited Tampa last month to inspect the artifacts recovered from a wreck that Odyssey codenamed "Black Swan." The inspection showed that the ship is a Spanish warship, Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, which was sunk by the British navy in 1804.
