No one will be allowed to remove a single one of nearly 100 bottles of champagne and mineral water from the 19th century from a shipwreck off Sweden's southern coast without permission, its officials said.
Although the location of the wreck has been known since 2016 and registered in the Swedish Antiquities Office as a cultural asset, it was not until July 11 this year that divers from Poland found the precious cargo.
The wreck at a depth of 58 meters off the coast of the Swedish county of Blekinge was found by divers while checking sites of archaeological interest in the Baltic Sea, 20 nautical miles (37 kilometers) from the island of Eland.
Specialists in wine and bottled water quickly performed laboratory tests on the contents of the bottles, said the leader of the divers, Tomaž Štačura. However, Swedish authorities stopped the divers as they immediately labeled the sunken ship as an "ancient treasure" requiring "clear and strong protection" to remain intact.
"You must not damage the ancient remains, which includes taking objects from the wreck without permission, for example a bottle of champagne," Magnus Johanson, a county official, told The Associated Press.
"The champagne bottles are a fantastically well-preserved discovery that gives us a picture of the end of the 19th century," he added.
If the wreck was from before 1850, it would automatically be declared an "ancient treasure," local authorities said.
"But we have determined that the cultural and historical values of the wreck are so great that it should be declared an 'ancient treasure,'" said Daniel Tedenlind, a district official in neighboring Kalmar.
Diver Štačura previously said that it is believed that the cargo, in the second half of the 19th century, probably traveled to the royal palace in Stockholm or to the residence of the Russian emperor in St. Petersburg.
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