TAMPA - Spain is suing Tampa-based Odyssey Marine Exploration, claiming the company had no right to recover what may be the largest sunken treasure ever discovered.
Odyssey won't reveal the location of the shipwreck or details about its identity, although Spain thinks it is the Merchant Royal, a British cargo ship that sank off England's southwest coast in 1641 while carrying several tons of coins from Spain to Belgium to pay the Spanish army.
Lawyers for the Spanish government filed suit Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Tampa, arguing the company was not authorized to recover property that belongs to Spain.
'Spain has not abandoned its ships or other sunken property, and any salvage activity like recovering coins is not valid without authorization by the owner,' said Jim Goold, a Washington lawyer representing Spain. 'If they have recovered property of Spain, it does not belong to them.'
Goold said Odyssey has failed to respond to repeated requests for information from Spain.
Odyssey said Wednesday in a statement that it hasn't verified the ship's identity and that Spain's action is premature.
'Even if claimants are verified and their claims are upheld by the courts, Odyssey expects to receive a substantial award for the archaeological recovery,' the company said.
Odyssey said this month that it extracted 500,000 gold and silver coins, which may be worth $500 million, from a shipwreck in the Atlantic Ocean. The treasure was flown to the United States on a chartered flight out of Gibraltar.
Odyssey has said the site is beyond territorial boundaries of any country and that the recovery was in accordance with international salvage law.
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