“We were called looters, pirates, but I did nothing wrong
,” Félix Biancamaria claimed before the judges.
This 67-year-old Corsican defended tooth and nail the ownership of a solid gold dish dating from the 3rd century, discovered in the Lava golf course, near Ajaccio.
Accused of having looted a national treasure, he was sentenced this Wednesday by the Marseille criminal court to 12 months' suspended imprisonment.
Also prosecuted, his old friend Jean-Michel Richaud received an eight-month suspended prison sentence.
Both will have to pay a tax fine of 100,000 euros each.
Sea urchin fishing
The first act of this incredible saga opens during a sea urchin fishing trip in 1985, in this idyllic golf course in Southern Corsica.
With his brother Ange and a friend, Félix Biancamaria discovered the first pieces of this treasure with the effigies of the Roman emperors Gallienus, Claudius II, Quintille and Aurélien.
They were convicted ten years later for having sold or attempted to sell 78 of these pieces at auction in Monaco.
The rest of the loot was scattered in the wild, including the centerpiece: a solid gold dish weighing 879 grams.
This rare object, with an estimated value of between six and eight million euros, resurfaced fifteen years later, on the platform of the Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle TGV station.
In October 2010, the person concerned was picked up by around forty police officers, with a velvet pouch in his luggage in which Lava's dish was hidden.
According to his statements, he reappeared in the summer of the same year, via Jean-Michel Richaud who entrusted him with it, which he disputes.
Tried and therefore convicted today for “
receiving and detaining maritime cultural property
” and “
smuggling a national treasure
”, he has always proclaimed his innocence.
Considering himself robbed by the State, he instead intended to recover his property.
According to evolving versions, he first claimed that these remains came from an inheritance, then claimed to have found them on land belonging to his family, to finally declare having discovered them during a dive between fishermen.
Land or sea treasure?
In the eyes of the law, the difference between land and sea cultural property is significant.
If the treasure was buried in the ground and then fell on the shore following a landslide, the loot is shared between its “
inventor
”, that is to say the one who finds the merchandise, and the owner of the land .
Conversely, maritime law is radically different.
If following a shipwreck, the owner of the wreck does not come forward, the entire cargo returns to the State.
With this conviction, the criminal court seems to go in the direction of the Department of Underwater and Underwater Archaeological Research (Drassm), which affirms that the Lava treasure is maritime property.
During his requisitions, prosecutor Michel Sastre castigated the defendants for having “
destroyed an entire section of
historical knowledge” and “
squandered property which could have been the pride of the island
”.
Contacted by
Le Figaro
, Me Amale Kenbib, representing Félix Biancamaria alongside Me Anna-Maria Sollacaro, denounces a conviction which is not based on any scientific certainty: “
We considered, at the start of the debates before the criminal court that we were not than lay the groundwork for a long legal battle.
In view of the motivation for the judgment, it is clear that the question arises as to whether there exists a truly impartial and independent justice system vis-à-vis the executive power.”
The lawyers will appeal in order to have a new trial before the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal, “
while waiting to practice law before the Court of Cassation
”, they predict.