Madrid
Spanish police have confiscated an old bell believed to have come from Christopher Columbus’ flagship, the Santa Maria. The bell was to have been auctioned off—with bidding opening at $1 million—in Madrid this week, but a judge delayed the sale to allow time for Portugal to make its claim for ownership. Italian diver Robert Mazzara salvaged the bell from the wreck of the Spanish galleon San Salvador, which sank in 1555 in Portuguese waters. Neither the Spanish nor the Portuguese government was at all interested in claiming the bell until Mazzara released a historical study tracing its history to the Santa Maria. Now Portugal—a country that refused to sponsor Columbus’ voyages, which is why he ended up with Spanish sponsorship—wants the relic.
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