Tuesday, 11 February 2025
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The three Frenchmen accused of stealing from the wreck of the 18th century schooner “Jeanne-Élisabeth” have been given an unusually harsh sentence. The sentence handed down in this case is over €1,000,000 in fines and 4 years in prison. The French media are highlighting the draconian sentence handed down by the appeal court and hope that it will serve as a deterrent in the fight against the looting of sunken wrecks.
The ship Jeanne-Élisabeth sank in 1755 in a place known as Villeneuve-lès-Maguelone, near Montpellier, while sailing from Cadiz to Marseille. Until 2007, the wreck remained undiscovered, until a local fisherman, Claude Marty, came across its remains. It was this man and his two friends who decided to ‘take care’ of the precious cargo and now have to suffer the consequences of their actions.
Probably the men could not believe their own luck when, by looting the wreck, they more or less legally became the owners of 24,000 silver coins and other objects, sailing from Cadiz and once destined for Swiss bankers.
Today the would-be treasure hunters must pay back to the state more than €1,000,000 – the amount determined by the court to be the value of the stolen items – and face up to four years in prison. The conclusion of this case shows that the French courts are not going to be easy on thieves who are after cultural heritage that was once taken by the sea.
However, the verdict in this trial and the sentence handed down are not the only good news. The French press reports that archaeologists from the French Department of Archaeological and Undersea Research investigated the site and found many interesting artefacts. The well-preserved wreck, resting at a depth of only 5 metres, provided a lot of interesting information and became an important research object.
Source: archaeologiasubacquea.blogspot.it
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