First images of treasures recovered from $20 billion Colombian shipwreck

The Colombian government have shared images of the first treasures recovered from the shipwreck

Images of a cannon, three coins and a porcelain cup, among the first treasures from the “holy grail” of shipwrecks off the coast of Colombia to have been recovered from its top secret location last week, have been released.

The Colombian government has been keeping the location of the shipwrecked 18th-century Spanish galleon a closely guarded state secret. But they gave the world its first glimpse of the treasure trove – said to be worth $20 billion – recovered from the San Jose, which sank in 1708 after being attacked by an English fleet during the War of the Spanish Succession

The recovery is part of a scientific investigation that the government authorised last year to study the wreckage and the causes of the sinking.

The wreckage of the San Jose galleon was discovered in 2015. / Credit: Colombian Navy via AP

Colombian researchers located the galleon in 2015, leading to legal and diplomatic disputes. Its exact location is a state secret.

The ship is believed to hold 11 million gold and silver coins, emeralds and other precious cargo from Spanish-controlled colonies, which could be worth billions of dollars if ever recovered.

President Gustavo Petro’s government has said that the purpose of the deep-water expedition is research and not the seizure of the treasure.

Colombia’s culture ministry said in a statement that the cannon, coins and porcelain cup will undergo a conservation process at a lab dedicated to the expedition.

The location of the wreck is a closely guarded secret. / Credit: Colombian Navy via AP

The wreckage is 600 meters deep in the sea.

The prevailing theory among historians has been that an explosion caused the 62-gun, three-masted galleon to sink after being ambushed by an English squadron.

But Colombia’s government has suggested that it could have sunk for other reasons, including damage to the hull.

The ship has been the subject of a legal battle in the United States, Colombia and Spain over who owns the rights to the sunken treasure.

Colombia is in arbitration litigation with Sea Search Armada, a group of US investors, for the economic rights of the San Jose.

The firm claims $10 billion (£7.6bn), corresponding to what they assume is worth 50% of the galleon’s treasure that they claim to have discovered in 1982.

Spain lay claim to the cargo owing to it being a Spanish galleon, while Bolivia’s Qhara Qhara people, who were forced to mine the rare materials by their Spanish colonisers, argue they should inherit the treasure.