Colombia to Build Museum to Showcase Shipwreck Discovery

The San Jose was sunk in a bitter civil war between Spanish forces loyal to the Hapsburg Dynasty and those loyal to Prince Phillip, a nephew and next in line for succession.

He said a UNconvention stipulates that this kind of shipwreck is “of the state, of war, not a private ship”, so that “ownership belongs to the state where the ship was flagged”.

Unfortunately, the ship carrying those treasures sunk in June 1708 when it was attacked by a British warship outside Cartagena.

And on board that boat, the San Jose, there may be up to $17 billion in loot to plunder.

“This is the most valuable treasure that has been found in the history of humanity”, he said during a press conference officially detailing the find the following day. In a presentation to the media, the president said that the discovery was “a matter of the Colombian state”, and as such, few people would be authorized to speak to the public about the findings. Colombia later backtracked on the deal and, in 2011, a US court sided with the government, ruling that it was entitled to keep whatever treasure it found.

Hailed as the greatest treasure discovery of all time.

An artist’s depiction of a 16th-century Spanish galleon.

King Philip V of Spain was awaiting the bounty.

The Spanish fleet’s other galleons with gold, silver, jewelry, emeralds and other gems escaped the British navy.

A shipwreck has been located on the bottom of the Caribbean Sea off the Colombian coast that may be the long-sought San Jose galleon. “She immediately sank with all her riches”.

The actual location of the wreck has remained a mystery until now. “The amount and type of the material leave no doubt”, Ernesto Montenegro, head of the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History, told AFP.

The exact contents of the ship aren’t known at this point, but include precious stones and metals, and are estimated to be valued in the billions.

A team of Colombian and foreign researchers, including a veteran of the group that discovered the wreck of the Titanic in 1985, studied winds and currents of the Caribbean 307 years ago and delved into colonial archives in Spain and Colombia searching for clues. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who announced the find, said a museum would be built to display the artefacts.

Spain is hoping to strike gold by staking its claim to the possible multi-billion-dollar haul of the San Jose galleon, which was reported as found Friday, according to government sources in Madrid. However, the Colombian government said it may have actually taken on water rapidly when English guns breeched its already-damaged hull.