A bell has disappeared from the Costa Concordia

An unusual situation has arisen on the wreck of the wrecked cruise liner Costa Concordia. According to reports from Italy, a ship’s bell engraved with the name of the liner has gone missing. Until recently, the bell was a frequent motif appearing in photographs taken by divers working on the wreck.

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The gilded bell of the Concordia, wrecked in January, was probably stolen. There would be nothing surprising in this, after all in Poland we are used to similar “collectors” of souvenirs, but in this case every dive is registered and there is practically no possibility that an outsider could approach the wreck.

Work on the Costa Concordia can only be carried out by divers from the Italian navy, who are searching the wreck for people still missing, and by divers pumping fuel out of the vessel. The whole situation is therefore very embarrassing, because it turns out that under the nose of the police, an audacious theft was committed, and it is not excluded that it was done by divers working on the wreck. The incident will be explained by the investigators in charge of the investigation into the disappearance of the bell.

What is most puzzling is how someone took the large and heavy bell unnoticed? After all, it is not a trinket that one can hide with one’s person and move away unnoticed by anyone.

According to the Italian news agency ANSA, preliminary findings indicate that a group of people must have been involved in the theft, as unhooking and retrieving the bell would have been beyond the capabilities of a single thief.

What is most distasteful about the whole incident is that the bell was to remain on the island of Giglio as a symbol commemorating the deaths of the 32 victims of the Costa Concordia and the commitment of those who helped the survivors since the fateful evening of 13 January 2012, when the tragedy occurred. The media and the Italian public are outraged by the whole situation.

Knowing life, the stolen item, for not inconsiderable sums of money, will be added to someone’s private collection, where it will be kept secret (very possibly among other similar artefacts). Already a short while after the catastrophe itself, a whole lot of Concordia souvenirs appeared on Internet auctions, which enjoyed considerable success. No wonder that someone, encouraged by this turn of events, decided to satisfy the demand among “collectors” by offering them a real “white raven”.

Source: tvn24.pl
Photo: EU Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection/flickr