WOW! 4 tons of gold coins.

I agree salvage laws need to be revamped. But, I think if anyone should dispute the claims to the salvaged metals, it should be the countries that Spain originally stole them from, such as Bolivia, Peru and a dozen other such places where whole cultures were wiped off the face of the planet to obtain their wealth. Bank robbers can't reclaim their loot when they get out of prison, why should countries that plunder other countries be allowed to?
Guy~

 

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Indeed, Peru already has already attempted to assert their claim to counter Spain's claims to what Odyssey has recovered. See The Peru Times article, Peru pushes legal claim over rights to sunken treasure and the MercoPress article, Peru joins Odyssey/Spain dispute over recovered sunken treasure. encil:

 

I wish the U.S. government did like the U.K. government does. When treasure is found in the U.K. the finder turns the find to a government representative in their area if the U.K. government determines the find is historic treasure the government pays the finder a fee worth 100% of the find or they return the find to the finder. This keeps people from stealing the historical find from the people of the country and at the same time the finder isn't short changed. In my state if you find artifacts from history the state takes them from you and pays you nothing!

 

Same here in CA. We found several intact pieces of pottery that was found to originate from the Piute tribe. The BLM was excited to have such pieces, as according to them they are far and few between. No thank you. No nothing. So, when they asked where we found them we told them nothing, and that they didn't like so much. If they would have at least given us some recognition for the find I would have been thrilled and personally shown them the find location. Until that happens (and it's been 25 years), then no dice.
Guy~

 

Of course I don't know the details of your story and how you came to be in possession of these Paiute artefacts but rather than approaching the Bureau of Land Management, had you either attempted to or considered turning the pieces over to tribal government authorities for the Paiute Nation? I'm sure the reception would have been different, while most likely not a warm reception for having their culture dug(?) up, or potentially the site of these pieces having been in sacred place to these people 'intruded' upon. They may have been the more suitable recipient of such items. Just a thought for any such future occurances or for others who may come by such cultural artefacts.

 

We didn't know what tribe they belonged to before we were told by BLM. We didn't in fact take them to BLM, but rather the local library as they have large displays of such artifacts. The library informed the BLM, who then took the pieces. Had we known that would happen, I much rather would have seen them in the hands of the tribe that they belonged to. I'm not sure the Paiute's even have a representative council anymore. As far as being sacred, I doubt it. they were described as water vessels used to transport water, and seeing as the place we found them in was littered with small caves and alcoves directly above a spring, I'm assuming they were stored there for convenience. But, you're right. If I ever find anything like that again, with the internet now, I'll conduct my own research and gladly hand them over to the rightful owners, or better yet, mark the location with gps and tell them where they can get it themselves.
Guy~

 

Thanks for the background details. And you're right about the difficulty of going about this before the internet was such a widely looked to tool. I guess, that despite no thanks given nor provenance being suggested for your honesty and efforts, such as titling these pieces as being donated by Mr (& Mrs) Guy ... & family, that they may have at least ended up in public collection as opposed to a black market or gallery network of this material.

 

SS Republic Shipwreck

The Oddesy also recovered a large find of gold and Silver.But they kept it and sold it to the public .I purchaced one ,here's a few pics.

 

That's great to see! Thanks for sharing this piece.

 

SS Republic Shipwreck

Here's a few more pics .