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Karl Schembri
Unscrupulous expert divers looting priceless heritage treasures from the deep sea have been arrested by the police in an unprecedented, wide-ranging investigation, MaltaToday can reveal.
A criminal practice probably as old as deep water diving, police investigators in the last weeks have clamped down on divers and scuba diving schools who are notorious among diving circles for their unrestrained pillaging of underwater cultural heritage.
Among the arrested, the police interrogated Maltese and foreign divers who were found in the possession of artefacts dating back to Roman times. Other artefacts are believed to belong to the period of the Knights of St John.
But the bulk of investigations have centred on the pilfering from a particular diving site believed to be “one of the greatest shipwrecks in the world”.
It is known as “the little Titanic”, the magnificent SS Polynésien, a 153-metre ship lying some 70 metres buried under the sea off St Thomas Bay since it was torpedoed by a U-boat in 1918, towards the end of World War I.
Among diving circles, it is also known as “the plate ship” because of the impressive number of fine porcelain plates, brass lanterns, period decorations and furnishings buried on the wreck, together with, it is believed, priceless sealed champagne bottles dating back to the WWI period.
Aided by the Cultural Heritage Superintendence, investigators are also believed to have established a link with illegal international heritage trafficking rings trading antiques found underwater through the internet.
Shipwreck and underwater artefacts are protected by the Cultural Heritage Act but enforcement has been severely lacking for decades, giving a free hand to the unscrupulous segment of the diving community who are feared to have stripped a great part of Malta’s seabed from its underwater treasures for ever.
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