
U.S., Colombian sunken treasure dispute may soon play out at sea - wglb
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-colombia-treasure-hunters-shipwreck-20160110-story.html
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themartorana
When there are three governments with claims to the wreck, do the treasure
hunters really a) expect to walk away with anything or b) think the US Navy
will back them up?

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Shivetya
Well Columbia can likely be sued in a US court and they will have interests
here as well. This is still one of the examples where governments simply rely
on their existence and threat of action to violate agreements that they make
or in this case, possibly steal.

I really don't see any reason why a hundred plus year old wreck belongs to
anyone, let alone governments that did not exist at the time of the wreck. You
want it, you find it. Perhaps there can be a time period where they are
protected by national rights similar to copyright periods, but this is over
three hundred years old.

If you want a real tragedy, rail infrastructure is woefully backlogged yet
government organizations like Boston's won't even try to do it investing less
than a fourth of a years requirements because they found out, rail in all
forms is damn expensive to operate.

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ceronman
> Well Columbia can likely be sued in a US court and they will have interests
> here as well. This is still one of the examples where governments simply
> rely on their existence and threat of action to violate agreements that they
> make or in this case, possibly steal.

SSA already sued Colombia in US courts twice and lost.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_galleon_San_Jos%C3%A9](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_galleon_San_Jos%C3%A9)

