From shipwreck in Italy, a treasure now beckons

Feb. 1: Anti oil floating barriers are pushed by strong winds around the grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy. (AP)

ROME -- In the chaotic evacuation of the Costa Concordia, passengers and crew abandoned almost everything on board: jewels, cash, champagne, antiques, 19th century Bohemian crystal glassware, thousands of art objects including 300-year-old woodblock prints by a Japanese master.

In other words, a veritable treasure now lies beneath the pristine Italian waters where the massive luxury liner ran aground last month.

Though some objects are bound to disintegrate, there is still hoard 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.

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 and 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.

The Costa Concordia was essentially a floating luxury hotel, and 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 massive wealth belonging to the ship itself: shops stocked with jewelry, more than 6,000 works of art decorating walls and a wellness spa containing a collection of 300-year-old woodblock prints by Katsushika Hokusai, a Japanese artist most famous for his work of a giant wave framing Mt. Fuji in the distance.

"It's now a paradise for divers," said Hans Reinhardt, a German lawyer who represents 19 German passengers seeking compensation for their loss. He said some of his clients traveled with diamond-studded jewels and other heirlooms that had been in their families for generations.

"They lost lots of jewelry -- watches, necklaces, whatever women wear when they want to get well dressed," Reinhardt said. "They wanted to show off what they have."

The massive cruise liner itself is worth euro450 million, but that's just the cost of the ship and engine and doesn't take into account the value of all other objects on board, said Davide Barbano, the spokesman for Costa Crociere, the Italian company that operated the Costa Concordia.

Barbano confirmed that among the sunken objects are furniture, the vast art collection, computers, wine, champagne, as well as whatever valuables were locked away in safes in private cabins. Costa Crociere still legally owns the ship and the passengers own their sunken objects.

"Quantifying this is impossible because unfortunately the ship has sunk," Barbano said. "Until the ship is recovered there's no way to know what can be saved and what can't."

The ship ran aground off the Tuscan island of Giglio after the captain, Francesco Schettino, veered from his approved course, apparently to move closer to entertain passengers with a closer view of the island -- a common cruise ship practice. Schettino is now under house arrest, facing accusations of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship before all passengers were evacuated. Seventeen people are confirmed killed in the Jan. 13 shipwreck, with 15 more still missing.

For now, the ship's wreckage has been impounded by authorities and is surrounded by rescue workers, clean-up crews and scientists monitoring its stability on the rocky perch where it ran aground. Civil Protection, the agency that is running the rescue effort, says there is so much activity surrounding it now that authorities don't see a risk of looting yet. It also says it plans to remove the wreckage before looters can reach it.

After the ship ran aground, authorities passed a decree preventing anyone from coming within a nautical mile of the wreck, a ruling that will be valid as long as the huge liner is still in place, the Coast Guard said.

"The ship is being guarded 24 hours a day. It's not possible to even get close," said Lt. Massimo Maccheroni, a Coast Guard official.

Civil Protection director Franco Gabrielli said recently that it could take seven to 10 months to remove the 950 foot-long ship once a contract is awarded for the job.

But Marx, whose 64 books include "Treasure Lost at Sea," says that divers inevitably make a dash for sunken loot, even at great risk, and that they treat shipwrecks as a free for all.

He estimates that it will take about four to six months before a real treasure hunt will start -- in part because divers will want to avoid the rough winter sea. He said some divers will be put off because the ship is still shifting on the reef it collided into and is considered unstable.

But soon, treasure hunters will go.

"Bright-eyed divers will want to make a fortune," Marx said.

Even now, there are those trying to make a profit off the disaster. On eBay, all sorts of trinkets related to the shipwreck have already come up for sale, from coat hangers and medallions embossed with the cruise liner's name to a Costa Concordia desk plan.

Marx said that everything that is pulled up from this now-famous ship will have value, noting that even coal brought up from the Titanic, which sank 100 years ago, has found eager buyers.

"Even the dishes, the crockery inside that ship -- that's going to be worth an absolute fortune," Marx said.

Reinhardt, the German lawyer, says his clients would love nothing more than to get back their cherished valuables, which often carry emotional value. But at this point they are merely counting on a cash settlement.

"They would prefer to get their original stuff," he said. "But they don't have hope."