Spanish shipwreck ‘San José’ embargoed over treasure dispute

The High Court of Barranquilla has overturned a ruling of October 2017 and returned to that of the same month in 1994, placing the shipwreck under government custody once again.

This earlier verdict was passed after Sea Search Armada (SSA) sued the Colombian government in 1989, claiming 100% of its ‘financial, historic, cultural and scientific’ treasure belonged to the company ‘if it was found within the continental platform’, or within a set of secret coordinates dating back to 1982.

A lower court in Barranquilla ruled that the treasure on board should be split half each between Colombia and SSA, but at the time, the San José had not been found.

Famously mentioned in Nobel Literature Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez’s novel Love in the Time of Cholera, with the main characters hoping to trace it and claim the treasure inside, the San José finally emerged on December 4, 2015 – an historic mystery solved 300 years on and announced by former Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos.

Santos’ government put the job of bringing the ship to the surface and towing it to dry land out to tender among a series of foreign specialist companies, the terms of which included a percentage of the valuable cargo of gold and other precious metal being granted to the successful bidder.

But Santos’ successor Iván Duque has continually postponed the appointment, and his deputy, Marta Lucía Ramírez, has said the government of Colombia will not allow the galleon’s treasures to ‘end up in antiques shops all over the world’.

“Our history and the legacy of our ancestors will not become trading goods or the property of the entire planet’s collectors and treasure-hunters,” Sra Ramírez said.

“This is part of our commitment to protecting the heritage of all the people of Colombia, and president Iván Duque will not spare any effort in this task.”

Colombia has a law in place dating back to July 2013 which requires ‘submerged heritage’ to be ‘protected, recovered and made visible’.

This legislation covers ships and their artefacts sunk in Colombian waters, plus anything on board, irrespective of the cause of sinkage, but does not include raw materials ‘such as pearls, corals, precious or semi-precious stones, sand or wood’, nor ‘catalogued tangible goods’ which ‘would have had an exchange or monetary value’, such as coins and gold ingots.

As a result, it could be that the contents of the Spanish ship are not covered by this law.

It does, however, include a ‘public or private alliance’ clause which allows any firm charged with recovering the ship, artefacts or cargo to receive financial compensation ‘of up to 50% of the value of any goods that are not considered national heritage’.

To this end, if – as history recounts – the San José was filled with gold ingots, these may not be considered ‘Colombian national heritage’ and the company which lifts it to the surface may be entitled to half their value.

The San José was loaded with gold sent by the Viceroy of New Granada, silver from Perú, and precious stones.

It had set sail for Spain, but had not even left the New World when, on June 8, 1708, it was attacked by British pirates and sunk by cannon-fire.