3/22/13- Pre Columbian Artifacts Claimed by Mexico, Cannon Ball, Small Surf

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of TreasureBeachesReport.blogspot.com.

Gold Pre Columbian Artifact
From Sothebys Auction Catalog discussed in today's post.
 

Here we go again.  Mexico wants to claim items that have been in a private collection since the early 1900s.  It would seem that they could spend their time exploring and preserving the millions of artifacts that remain in the ground or studying and displaying some of the artifacts that remain hidden in dusty university basements, but the trend is to see what somebody else has and then claim that. 

I still don't know how Spain was able to claim the Black Swan treasures that originated in South America, was removed by Spanish explorers, then recovered by Odyssey Marine Explorations, and why Peru hasn't been able to get their share. 

I'll take that back.  Yes I do know.  It is all about politics and who has the best connections. 

This must be the decade of "blame and claim."  Blame somebody else for anything that goes wrong and claim anything good that somebody else has worked for.

Mexico claims that of the 130 items advertised as being from Mexico in the current Sothebys auction catalog, 51 are archaeological artifacts that should be returned to Mexico and the rest are fakes or handicrafts.  (We well know the problem with fakes these days.) 

Some of the items in the auction are from other South American countries such as Peru.

The auction was scheduled for March 22 and 23. 

Here is a link to the article about Mexico's claim.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20130321/lt-mexico-france-archaeology/?utm_hp_ref=entertainment&ir=entertainment

And here is a link to the Sotheby's auction catalog. 

http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2013/collection-barbier-mueller-pf1340/lots.list.2.30.lotnum.asc.html

Interesting collection of artifacts!  Some are gold.  The most interesting one for me is the carved crystal cat head.

It is always good to be familiar with a broad range of items and artifacts. 



Down in the Keys, the crew of the Magruder just found a cannon ball on the northern end of the Atocha trail. (Information received via email.)


One of the things I'll talk about tomorrow is the melted titanium pieces that are found on Treasure Coast beaches and salvaging space debris.


Below is a quick video clip of the surf yesterday on the Treasure Coast around low tide.   Notice the featureless front beach.

The wind is from the southeast, and the beach fronts continue to build.   I found very little metal of any kind on the beach front yesterday.   There are some shell lines on some beaches. 

The surf today is down around one foot, and low tide will be just after 11 AM.

The surf will increase maybe a touch for the next few days, but nothing significant.

No change in beach detecting conditions is expected.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net