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The Tampa-based deep-sea salvage company said Wednesday that Peru has filed a "conditional claim" in U.S. District Court in Tampa for the treasure, 17 tons of colonial-era coins worth an estimated $500 million.
In court documents, Peru said it may file a formal claim if it determines that the coins and artifacts originated from Peru.
The coins aboard the shipwreck, code-named Black Swan, include gold doubloons minted in 1803 in Lima, Peru, bearing the image of Spain's King Carlos IV, coin experts say.
Peru said in court papers that the treasure recovered by Odyssey may be "part of the patrimony of the Republic of Peru." In other words, Peru thinks it may have inheritance rights.
Odyssey did not return calls seeking comment, but in a news release, the company questioned whether Peru's claim would stand up in court.
Chief Executive Officer Greg Stemm said, "Peru's filing raises a significant and timely question relating to whether a former colonial power or the colonized indigenous peoples should receive the cultural and financial benefit of underwater cultural heritage derived from the previously colonized nations."
Spain also has filed a claim for the treasure, maintaining it was taken from the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, a 19th-century Spanish warship sunk by the British navy south of Portugal in 1804.
Odyssey has repeatedly said the treasure was recovered from a site beyond the territorial waters of any country, and the company expects that the court will award it the majority of the treasure, currently held in a Tampa warehouse.
More than a year after the treasure was recovered from the ocean floor, Odyssey still has not disclosed an identity of the shipwreck. In May 2007, Odyssey said the shipwreck "bears the characteristics of one shipwreck in particular" but did not name the ship.
At the time, British officials were saying the treasure may have come from the Merchant Royal, an English cargo ship that sank off England's southwest coast in 1641. The Merchant Royal sank while transporting coins from Spain to Belgium to pay a Spanish army stationed there.
When Odyssey announced in May 2007 that it had found what could be the richest shipwreck ever, the company's stock price jumped 81 percent to $8.32 a share. The stock closed Wednesday at $4.91 a share, up 0.08 cent. Shares are down 20 percent this year.
Before Black Swan, Odyssey's last big haul came in 2003, when it salvaged more than 50,000 coins and other artifacts worth $75 million from the SS Republic off Savannah, Ga.
Reporter Russell Ray can be reached at (813) 259-7870 or rray@tampatrib.com.
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