From shipwreck in Italy, a treasure now beckons
Posted: February 2, 2012 at 10:38 a.m.
People watch the grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia off the island of Giglio, Italy.
ROME — In the chaotic evacuation of the Costa Concordia, passengers and crew abandoned almost everything on board: jewels, cash, champagne, antiques, 19th century Bohemian crystal glassware, thousands of art objects including 300-year-old woodblock prints by a Japanese master.
In other words, a veritable treasure now lies beneath the pristine Italian waters where the massive luxury liner ran aground last month.
Though some objects are bound to disintegrate, there is still hoard enough to tempt treasure seekers — just as the Titanic and countless shipwrecks before have lured seekers of gold, armaments and other riches for as far back as mankind can remember.
It may be just a matter of time before treasure hunters set their sights on the sunken spoils of the Costa Concordia, which had more than 4,200 people on board.
“As long as there are bodies in there, it’s considered off base to everybody because it’s a grave,” said Robert Marx, a veteran diver and the author of numerous books on maritime history and underwater archaeology and treasure hunting. “But when all the bodies are out, there will be a mad dash for the valuables.”
The Costa Concordia was essentially a floating luxury hotel, and many of the passengers embarked on the ill-fated cruise with their finest clothes and jewels so they could parade them in casinos and at gala dinners beneath towering chandeliered ceilings.
On top of that was massive wealth belonging to the ship itself: shops stocked with jewelry, more than 6,000 works of art decorating walls and a wellness spa containing a collection of 300-year-old woodblock prints by Katsushika Hokusai, a Japanese artist most famous for his work of a giant wave framing Mt. Fuji in the distance.
Costa Crociere still legally owns the ship and the passengers own their sunken objects.
“Quantifying this is impossible because unfortunately the ship has sunk,” Barbano said. “Until the ship is recovered there’s no way to know what can be saved and what can’t.”
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The vultures are hovering over the corpse waiting to devour the remains. Hopefully the Italian government will police the recovery very strictly.
Posted by: Oldearkie
February 3, 2012 at 9:40 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
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