Is it right for commercial companies to exploit archaeological treasures? Shouldn’t they go to museums where the public and researchers could have access to them? John Opperman of salvage company Odyssey Marine Exploration, which recently retrieved half a million coins from an Atlantic shipwreck, tells Jim Giles about the thrills of salvage and why his company has every right to profit from what it finds.
Objects from shipwrecks are of international archaeological interest. Shouldn’t they be salvaged by museum curators rather than commercial companies such as yours?
We are very professional about what we do. Our attitude is never, “That…
