Samuel Reilly writes:
This year marks a decade since the discovery of the Spanish galleon San José off the coast of Colombia—yet its fate is as uncertain as ever.
The Colombian and Spanish governments, a private U.S. salvage company, and Indigenous groups in Bolivia and Peru have each staked a claim to what is routinely dubbed the “holy grail of shipwrecks,” with its prodigious cargo of gold, silver, and emeralds, valued at around $17 billion.
The Colombian government has already committed millions to its recovery, which is underway, but litigation has been an added difficulty to what is already an enormous, complex, and expensive salvage mission.
Archaeologists worldwide have been worried that bickering over money has taken precedence over concerted international action to salvage the wreck, given its enormous potential significance to our knowledge of colonial trade networks at the height of the Spanish empire.
The case has reignited global discussions about postcolonial restitution, highlighting the need to reconsider who truly owns underwater cultural heritage.
