Madrid- A row between Spain and a US treasure-hunting company over a coin treasure retrieved from a shipwreck deepened Wednesday, with the Madrid daily El Mundo claiming that Odyssey Marine Exploration had given false information about the location of the wreck. The Florida-based company says it recovered more than 500,000 silver coins, hundreds of gold coins and worked gold from a location beyond the jurisdiction of any country in the Atlantic Ocean.
El Mundo, however, said satellite images used by shipowners to control their vessels showed that Odyssey had been operating at a distance of about 20 kilometres off Cadiz in Spanish territorial waters.
That would allow Spain to lay a legal claim to the treasure, estimated to be worth half a billion dollars (370 million euros), which Odyssey has taken to the United States.
The daily El Pais said the Spanish government had instructed its embassy in Washington to request full information from the company about its discovery.
Odyssey had been granted permission to search for a 17th century British warship in the Strait of Gibraltar, but it located another shipwreck, whose nationality it says it is not certain of.
It has also not disclosed the exact location of the wreck, known as the Black Swan, which contained what is believed to be the biggest underwater coin treasure found so far.
Spain, whose waters are littered with hundreds of shipwrecks, is wary of treasure-hunters who could loot them for commercial purposes.
The Culture Ministry has launched a police investigation into the case.
