The fabulous cargo of gold, silver and precious stones of the San José – a Spanish galleon lying in the abysses of the Caribbean Sea – has long been the stuff of treasure hunters' dreams. Sunk by the English in 1708, the remains of the ship were only officially found in 2015, off Cartagena de Indias in northern Colombia. The then president Juan Manuel Santos spoke of "one of the greatest finds of underwater heritage in history, if not the greatest."

Colombia has no doubts about its rights to the wreck, which has been lying at a depth of 600 meters in its territorial waters for three centuries. Recovery of the objects contained in San José's hold is going to begin in April. Colombian authorities have acquired a Swedish-designed robot to "extract" the first relics. Led by an interdisciplinary team of civil servants, military personnel and experts, the operation is intended to be scientific. But it's stirring up fear, greed and disputes.

Since 2015, Spain has been claiming ownership of what was once its "warship," invoking a 2001 UNESCO convention on underwater heritage. The Indigenous Qhara Qhara community in Bolivia highlighted that the riches taken on board the San José in colonial times were actually plundered from its territory. The American company Sea Search Armada is demanding $10 billion (€9.2 billion) – half of what it estimates to be the current value of the San José bounty – on the grounds that it was the first to discover the wreck in the early 1980s. Archaeologists, on the other hand, want to keep the wreck and its riches at the bottom of the sea.

On March 19 in Bogotá, the Indictment Commission of the House of Representatives announced the opening of an investigation into Santos – a complaint for "violation of the archaeological site" and theft of objects from the sunken wreck was filed against the former president. In 2017, Santos announced a public-private partnership (PPP) with Swiss company Maritime Archaeology Consultants (MAC) to raise the wreck and sell some of its contents. Contested as soon as it was signed, the PPP fell through. Under pressure from scientists, the policy changed. In 2020, the San José and its contents were declared "cultural property," which prevents any monetization.

Today, the word "treasure" is banned from official discourse. "The San José is a piece of national heritage, indivisible, inalienable and intangible," explained Colombian admiral Hermann Leon. "The San José is of tremendous value, for science and archaeology. But it is priceless," added Alhena Caicedo, director of the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History (ICANH). "Our aim is not to fish out gold ingots, but to carry out serious archaeological work."

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