A bell that is believed that belonged to the 'Santa María', the largest of the three ships of the Discovery of America in 1492, will be placed on sale at a private auction in Miami (USA) by the Exterior and Italian Diver Roberto Mazzara.
In a statement released this Monday, Mazzara, who found the bell in 1994 on the Northern coast of Portugal and has maintained it in a safe place in Miami since 2006, he noted that "there is no doubt about the authenticity of this historical gem."
The bell, less than 14.07 kilos of weight and less than 25.4 centimeters in diameter, has a value that, according to Sotheby's and Christie's appraisers, is at least 100 million dollars (84.7 million euros to the current change), add the insoficial of the Italian Navy.
Mazzara was confiscated, the object that now wants to sell, but he recovered thanks to a judicial failure in Spain in 2006.
According to the statement, the tests carried out by the University of Zaragoza on the chemical composition of the bell metal, the archives of Indias in Seville and of Simancas and documents that point to the King Hiring House, who recorded all the maritime traffic between Spain and America, "coincide at the origin of the bell".
"As I grew up with the documentaries of Jacques Cousteau, I have always loved the mysteries of the seas and, as a professional diver, I could join these two passions when I first presented me the search for this bell almost 30 years ago," said Mazzara .
"The auction will be a wonderful opportunity to give collectors the opportunity to own a unique piece of history," he said without specifying when and where he will take place.
In the first decade of the 21st century Mazzara tried to auction the Bell of the Carabela Santa María in Spain for a symbolic price of one million dollars (850,000 euros), but the sale was cautiously suspended by Spanish justice due to an application of Portuguese government.
Portugal demanded in February 2004 the application of a European Directive for the "Restitution of a Cultural Good that left illegally from the territory of a Member State of the European Union".
But in 2006, a court of Madrid dismissed the lawsuit because he was not formulated in the expected terms, and returned the bell to Mazzara, who had found her in 1994 in front of the Port of Buarco, in Figueira da Foz (Portugal).
The bell was placed on the keel of a Spanish ship, the San Salvador, who sank in 1555 on the coast of Portugal from Spain.
The Bell of the Santa Maria was part of the Fortín's appliances that was built with the remains of the ship when it ran on the coasts of the North of Isla La Española, in an area that is now part of Haiti.
Cristóbal Colón left there 39 sailors and, when in 1493 he returned on his second trip, he found that the Indians had burned the fort, called Christmas, and killed all the Spaniards.
The bell sold years later, as it consists of a document appeared in Puerto Rico, where its purchase is recorded for a high amount for its time (32 pesos), and embarks on the San Salvador ship, captained by Gonzalo de Carvajal towards Spain .
Date Of Update: 21 September 2021, 09:07
