Miami, United States.
A bell that is believed to have belonged to the “Saint Mary”, The largest of the three ships of America’s voyage of discovery in 1492, will be put up for sale at a private auction in Miami by its discoverer, the ex-sailor and Italian bus Roberto Mazzara.
In a statement released Monday, Mazzara, who found the bell in 1994 on the north coast of Portugal and has kept it in a safe place in Miami since 2006, noted that “there is no doubt about the authenticity of this historical gem “.
The bell, weighing less than 31 pounds (14.07 pounds) and less than 10 inches (25.4 centimeters) in diameter, has a value that, according to appraisers of Sotheby’s and Christie’s, is at least $ 100 million, adds the former Italian Navy officer.
Mazzara suffered the confiscation of the object he now wants to sell, but recovered it thanks to a miscarriage of justice in Spain in 2006.
According to the statement, the tests performed by the University of Zaragoza on the chemical composition of the metal of the bell, the archives of the Indies in Seville and Simancas (Spain) and documents pointing to the King’s Contracting House, Which recorded all maritime traffic between Spain and America, “coincide in the origin of the bell.”
“How I grew up with the documentaries of Jaques Cousteau, I have always loved the mysteries of the seas and, as a professional diver, I was able to unite these two passions when I was first introduced to the search for this bell almost 30 years ago, ”Mazzara noted.
“The auction will be a wonderful opportunity to give collectors a chance to own a unique piece of history,” he said without specifying when and where it will take place.
In the first decade of the 21st century Mazzara tried to auction the Santa Maria caravel bell in Spain for a symbolic starting price of one million dollars, but the sale was precautionarily suspended by Spanish justice due to a request from Portuguese government.
Portugal called in February 2004 for the implementation of a European directive for the “restitution of a cultural property that illegally left the territory of a Member State of the European union“.
But in 2006 a court of Madrid rejected the demand, because it was not formulated in the anticipated terms, and returned the bell to Mazzara, had found that it in 1994 in front of the port of Buarcos, in Figueira da Foz (Portugal ).
The bell was placed on the keel of a Spanish ship, the San Salvador, Which sank in 1555 off the coast of Portugal on its way Spain.
The bell of Santa Maria was part of the utensils of the fort that was built with the remains of the ship when it ran aground on the northern shores of the island of L’Espanyola, in an area that today is part of Haiti.
The discoverer of America, Christopher Columbus, He left there 39 sailors and when in 1493 he returned on his second voyage it was found that the Indians had burned the fort, called Nadal, and killed all the Spaniards.
The bell was sold years later, according to a document published in Puerto Rico, which records its purchase for a high amount for its time (32 pesos), and embarks on the ship San Salvador, captained by Gonzalo from Carvajal to Spain.