No one will be allowed to fish out any of the nearly 100 bottles of 19th-century Champagne and mineral water nestled in a shipwreck off southern Sweden without proper authorization, officials said Wednesday.
Though the wreck’s location has been known since 2016 and is registered in Sweden’s National Antiquities Office’s cultural environment, it was only on July 11 that Polish scuba divers found the precious cargo.
The wreck, which sits at about 190 feet deep off the coast of the southern Sweden county of Blekinge, was found by the divers while they were checking spots of interest about 20 nautical miles south of the Swedish Baltic Sea island of Oeland.
I think it’s more like, the ship wreck will be recovered by someone. It is up to them to label these people as “illegal looters/pirates” or legitimate recovery which they will do business with.
If they go the “it’s illegal” route then they won’t see the loot for some time, while it gets sold on the black market.