Sunken Treasure off Columbia Coast

choi

Sunken treasure | Who Wants to Be a Galleonaire?  Almost everyone. Economist, Dec 12, 2015
http://www.economist.com/news/am ... ants-be-galleonaire
(On Dec 4, 2015 Columbia made the declaration of discovery. "Maritime treasure-hunters base their businesses on the 'law of finds,' a long-established common-law doctrine that gives ownership to the finder. * * * Sea Search Armada (SSA), a company based in the United States, says that it divulged the site of the wreck to the Colombian government in 1982. Colombian law at the time already contradicted the finders-keepers principle by reserving half of such finds for the state. But a new law in 1984 gave the state all the rights to the treasure, leaving SSA with a finder’s fee of 5%.  After tussles in Colombian and American courts the company has now filed a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights * * * A claimant with a better chance of getting the treasure may be" Spain, which "points to a UNESCO convention on underwater cultural heritage" that Columbia has not signed")

Note:
(a) On Dec 5, 2015 I has a posting titled 哥伦比亚找到满载财宝的西班牙沉船 (introducing a BBC report). This economist report explains what was going on.
(b) galleon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galleon
(a large, multi-decked sailing ship used primarily by European states from the 16th to 18th centuries;  was powered entirely by wind, using sails carried on three or four masts)
(c) UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UN ... r_Cultural_Heritage