Sunken Spanish treasure galleon San José found, Colombia says

“It is a discovery of global importance, it constitutes one of the greatest discoveries and identifications of our submarine heritage, if not the very greatest, some say, in the history of humanity”, the president said.

The San Jose sank in 1708 in the Caribbean Sea close to Cartagena.

The discovery off Colombia’s coast is sure to intensify an global dispute over the treasure.

However, just after having left the port of Cartagena, the ship was intercepted by “The Expedition”, a British ship that opened fire at the galleon, sinking it to its underwater resting place. In a news conference on Saturday, Santos said the government would build a museum to display the findings, with sonar images so far showing cannons, arms, ceramics and other artifacts, according to Reuters.

There could be up to 1,000 shipwrecks off the Caribbean coast of Colombia, but of those only between six and 10 had a large cargo of treasures, anthropologist Fabian Sanabria told AFP.

The San Jose was spotted by deep sea camera sent down by experts to examine the wreckage ahead of a planned salvage operation.

A group now owned by SSA said in 1981 that it had located the area in which the ship sank.

In the 1990s, Colombian courts ruled that the nation had the rights to everything considered “cultural patrimony” salvaged from the wreck, while the rest of the treasure should be split 50-50 with SSA.

The loot is estimated to be worth around $2 billion, its value having dropped significantly due to the falling price of silver, according to US-based company Sea Search Armada.

Shortly afterward, however, the government cast doubts on SSA’s claim, saying that an independent team of investigators couldn’t find evidence of a shipwreck at the coordinates provided by the company.

Reporting from the Colombian capital Bogota, Al Jazeera’s Alessandro Rampietti said the San Jose was believed to be “the holy grail of a shipwreck”, with a trove that is “valued somewhere between $4 billion to $17b (NZ$5.9b to $25b)”.