Saturna said:
The bottom line is that private interests find & recover these treasures.
Governments do nothing but create red tape, and empires for power tripping bureaucrats.
All the stuff ever found on the seabed would still be there if it was left up to governments.
Read this statement:
"The big fish get eat the little fish". This true always has been present in the history of the human kind.
1. Spain conquered almost the whole American continent, from Florida and California up to Argentina, since 1492 to 1800's. They committed, genocide against the Maya, Aztecs, Incas everything for the gold. After that, everything that they did in those conquered territories was legal.
2. United Stated conquered the Native American territories. They committed genocide and wars against those ethnic groups since 1600 to 1890?. After that, everything that they did in those conquered territories was legal. They founded the United Stated of America.
3. United State of America declared the war against Spain in 1898. The American troops took as Military booty to Philippine, Guam, Cuba and Puerto Rico. They never acted with democracy in front these countries. They took them and period. If some of those countries decided to keep them as territories of the United Stated(Guam and Puerto Rico) it's another story. After that, everything that they did in those conquered territories is legal.
So, all treasure brought from South America to Spain during the period of the colonization and it was lost in the bottom of the sea, all of them, belong to Spain, Spain is the legitimate owner. Did they steel archaeological treasures? Yes, they did it and today, they keep steeling treasure, this time as Archaeologist and putting them in a foreigner Museum.
That it is.