Columbian Government Aims To Recover Treasure Worth Billions From “Holy Grail Of Shipwrecks”

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Colombia stated that it would try to recover the objects from a Spanish warship that had sunk off the coast of the city Cartagena back in 1708, the Associated Press mentioned on Thursday.

The shipwreck of San José galleon — popular as the “holy grail of shipwrecks” — is strongly believed to be loaded with billions of dollars worth of items, including over 7 million pesos, 116 steel chests loaded with emeralds, and about 30 million gold coins. It had sunk in a battle against the British vessels.

Juan David Correa, the culture minister of Colombia, said that the nation will try its best to make the first recovery from the vessel in April/May 2024, subject to current ocean conditions, the AP stated.

Colombia’s move to recover objects from the shipwreck — located back in 2015 — would be highly controversial. In 2018, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization urged Colombia not to commercially exploit this shipwreck.

A US salvage firm is suing Colombia for half of San José’s treasures. The vessel’s cargo is estimated to be worth somewhere between $4 billion and $20 billion, Bloomberg reported, citing the court cases in recent decades. Colombia’s culture minister, Correa, pledged that object recovery from the San José’s will be a scientific expedition, as reported by AP.

This is an archaeological wreck instead of a treasure, Correa mentioned, per the news agency, with an opportunity for them to become a nation at the forefront of archaeological research underwater.

Reference: Yahoo

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