U.S. treasure hunters must return $500million haul seized from seabed shipwreck to Spain

By Hannah Roberts

Last updated at 7:32 AM on 2nd February 2012It is a treasure haul of unimaginable magnificence, an undersea Aladdin's cave of silver coins, hauled covertly out of the lost wreck of a 19th century Spanish galleon and airlifted to the U.S. 

But now a five year legal wrangle over the true ownership of a $500million treasure trove seized by American treasure hunters in 2007 has come to an end-with a U.S judge ruling that the 17ton fortune must be returned to Spain.

Odyssey Marine Exploration Executes Agreement with Maritime Heritage Foundation for Admiral Balchin's HMS Victory Shipwreck
Tampa, FL – February 2, 2012 - Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. (NasdaqCM: OMEX), a pioneer in the field of deep-ocean shipwreck exploration and archaeology, has executed an agreement with the Maritime Heritage Foundation for the financing, archaeological survey and excavation, conservation and exhibit of HMS Victory (1744) and artifacts from the shipwreck site. HMS Victory was a British First Rate Warship that sank during a storm in 1744 while under the command of Admiral Sir John Balchin.

In 2008, Odyssey discovered HMS Victory and is salvor-in-possession of the wreck. After a period of joint consultation between the UK Ministry of Defence and the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and a public consultation period, the remains of HMS Victory were transferred to the Maritime Heritage Foundation in January 2012. The Foundation, a charity established to locate shipwrecks, investigate, recover and preserve artifacts to the highest archaeological standards and to promote knowledge and understanding of Britain’s maritime heritage, has now assumed responsibility for the future management of the wreck site.

http://shipwreck.net/pr240.php

Raiders plundering Byzantine treasures

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

Unlicensed excavations take place inside the graves in Çatalca district.

Treasure hunters and looters have been plundering a Byzantine cemetery and the İnceğiz caves in Istanbul’s Çatalca district for many years, despite the area’s recognition as a protected archeological site of the first degree.

“Grave diggers have swarmed into the region when the excavation work in the cemetery came to an end in 1995 upon the order of the Archeology Museum. Unlicensed excavations take place inside the graves that were carved into stone, after [the looters] break the stone lids. History is being destroyed,” said Ahmet Rasim Yücel, the head of the Çatalca Culture and Tourism Association

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/raiders-plundering-byzantine-treasures.aspx?pageID=238&nID=12617&NewsCatID=375

Germany returns two millennia old Afghan sculpture
 

An Afghan specialist looks at an ancient pre-Islamic sculpture that was returned to Afghanistan at the Afghan National Museum in Kabul January 30, 2012.

By Amie Ferris-Rotman

KABUL | Tue Jan 31, 2012 5:28am EST

KABUL (Reuters) - Germany this week returned an ancient pre-Islamic sculpture looted during Afghanistan's civil war, giving hope to Kabul's cultural mavens that the rest of its stolen treasures will also make their way home.

Eight figures, one missing a torso and others without noses, make up the 30-cm high (12 inches) limestone antiquity from the second century AD, a reminder of Afghanistan's rich classical past as a confluence of cultures on the crossroads of Asia.

Faces turned to their left, they are believed to be audience members watching Buddha on his throne in the ancient kingdom of Gandhara, which stretched across part of Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Foreign Ministry said.

"This is a masterpiece ... I am optimistic that in the future we will get the other artefacts back," said Omara Khan Massoudi, the director of Afghanistan's National Museum, which housed the sculpture before it was stolen.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/31/uk-afghanistan-antiquity-idUSLNE80U00S20120131

Sumerian gold jar, other relics returned to Iraq

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A 6,500-year-old Sumerian gold jar, the head of a Sumerian battle axe and a stone from an Assyrian palace were among 45 relics returned to Iraq by Germany on Monday.

The items were among thousands stolen from Iraq's museums and archeological sites in the mayhem that followed the U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein in 2003.

The tiny gold jar, dating to 4,500 BC, the bronze axe head, clay tablets bearing cuneiform script, a metal amulet and other artifacts were seized by German police at public auctions and turned over to Iraqi officials in a ceremony at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/30/us-iraq-artefacts-idUSTRE80T12J20120130

Princeton University Art Museum, Italy reach new antiquities agreement
Posted January 25, 2012; 01:00 p.m. share | e-mail | printby StaffThe Princeton University Art Museum and Italian cultural authorities have completed the transfer of ownership of six works of art in the museum's collections.

The transfer agreement is an addendum to an agreement with Italy that the University entered into in 2007. It builds upon the museum's history of successfully resolving ownership claims for works of art in its collections.

Under the agreement, six works were returned to the Republic of Italy in December 2011. The transfer of title for the six returned items is an important aspect of the agreement because it recognizes that legal title rested with Princeton before the transfer and that the works were acquired by Princeton in good faith.

http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S32/75/13K74/index.xml?section=topstories

Florida salvage company to explore British wreck
January 24, 2012 10:22 AM

(AP)  LONDON undefined A Florida-based deep-sea salvage company will help explore the wreck of a renowned 18th century British warship it discovered at the bottom of the English Channel four years ago, a charity said Monday.

The newly established Maritime Heritage Foundation said Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc. plans to scan the wreck of the HMS Victory with a robotic submersible to try and find out why the ship sank beneath the waves and whether it carried any treasure.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505245_162-57364707/florida-salvage-company-to-explore-british-wreck/

Stolen French artwork to be repatriated
By Roland Flamini - Special to The Washington Times

Tuesday, January 24, 2012
A stolen work by French impressionist Camille Pissarro is going home after 31 years, thanks to sharp-eyed French investigators and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The work, a monotype (an oil painting transferred to paper) of a bustling market scene called “Le Marche,” was taken from the Faure Museum in Aix-les-Bains, France, in 1981, then smuggled into the United States and sold to an art gallery in San Antonio, Texas.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/24/stolen-french-artwork-to-be-repatriated/

Mystery swirls around Judaic manuscripts discovered in Afghanistan
By Ben Harris · January 24, 2012

NEW YORK (JTA) -- It was said to be a finding of groundbreaking scholarly and historic significance, comparable in importance to the 19th-century discovery of the Cairo Geniza and rivaling the Dead Sea Scrolls for sheer drama.

That, at any rate, was the buzz in scholarly circles when reports began surfacing last month that an exceptionally rare collection of ancient Judaic manuscripts -- some of them dating back more than a millennia -- were discovered in a cave in Samangan province in northeastern Afghanistan.

The manuscripts are of several varieties, both religious and secular, and are drafted in a number of languages, including Judeo-Persian and Judeo-Arabic. Among the documents recovered are fragments of the writings of the Saadia Gaon, a famed Jewish sage born in Egypt in the ninth century, and financial records that may shed light on the little-known medieval Jewish merchant class known as the Raddanites.

http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/01/24/3091330/mystery-swirls-around-judaic-manuscripts-discovered-in-afghanistan