ROME – In the chaotic evacuation of the Costa Concordia, passengers and crew abandoned almost everything on board the cruise ship: jewels, cash, champagne, antiques, 19th-century Bohemian crystal glassware and thousands of art objects, including 300-year-old woodblock prints by a Japanese master.
Now, a veritable treasure lies beneath the pristine Italian waters where the luxury liner ran aground last month.
Though some objects are bound to disintegrate, there is still 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.
The company still legally owns the ship and the passengers own their sunken objects. So any treasure seekers would be breaking the law and subject to arrest – and the looted objects subject to seizure, the Coast Guard said.
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, underwater archaeology and treasure hunting. “But when all the bodies are out, there will be a mad dash for the valuables.”
The Mafia, he said, even has underwater teams that specialize in going after sunken booty.
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 the massive wealth belonging to the ship itself: elegant shops stocked with jewelry, more than 6,000 works of art decorating walls, including a collection of 300-year-old woodblock prints by Katsushika Hokusai, a Japanese artist most famous for his work of a giant wave framing Mount Fuji in the distance.
Among the sunken objects are furniture, computers, wine, champagne, as well as valuables locked in safes in private cabins, the Costa Crociere press office said.
“It’s now a paradise for divers,” said Hans Reinhardt, a German lawyer who represents 19 German passengers seeking compensation for their losses. He said some of his clients traveled with diamond-studded jewels and other heirlooms that had been in their families for generations.
For now, the ship’s wreckage has been impounded by authorities and is surrounded by rescue workers, cleanup crews and scientists monitoring its stability on the rocky perch where it ran aground.
“The ship is being guarded 24 hours a day. It’s not possible to even get close,” said Coast Guard Lt. Massimo Maccheroni.
