Spanish police seize Columbus bell three days before scheduled

MADRID, Spain -- A rusty, broken bell that may have come from Christopher Columbus' flagship -- the Santa Maria -- was seized by police Monday, days before it was to be auctioned for a starting bid of $1 million.

A Spanish judge ordered the seizure so Portugal could investigate its claim to the artifact, which a diver discovered in a sunken Spanish galleon in Portuguese waters.

While experts concede they may never be able to prove beyond a doubt the bell came from the Santa Maria, that possibility -- and its potential sale -- grabbed the attention of Portuguese officials who filed a court order to stop the auction.

'A small victory'

"We're very happy to hear this," Rosa Amora, deputy director of the Portuguese Archaeological Institute, said of the seizure. "It's a small victory in a long war."

The Spanish government had no immediate comment.

Police seized the bell from the Hotel Ritz, in downtown Madrid, where the sale was to have taken place Thursday. They used a protective case to remove the badly corroded bell, which is 10 inches tall, weighs about 30 pounds and has several fractures and a large hole.

"It came as a total surprise this morning," said David del Val Catala, director of the auction house Gestion de Activos y Subastas. "For the moment the auction has been suspended. We are now studying the order and preparing our case."

The auction house and the Italian diver who recovered the artifact in 1994 insist they have done nothing wrong.

"All the dealings concerning the bell have been carried out with total transparency," said del Val Catala. "Nothing has been kept from the Portuguese authorities or Spanish authorities."

Italian diver Robert Mazzara found the bell off the coast of northern Portugal inside the wreck of the San Salvador, which sank in 1555 while sailing from the Americas to Spain.

At first, neither Portugal nor Spain expressed much interest in the bell, Del Val Catala said. That changed after Mazzara and the auctioneers commissioned studies to prove the bell once belonged to the Columbus ship.

Now, Portuguese authorities want to examine that evidence, and perhaps proceed with a legal claim, said Amora, of the archaeological institute.

Mazzara told officials from both countries about his find in 1994, but at the time, he only suspected the bell was from the Santa Maria.

Portuguese authorities say the diver promised to inform them when he had proof of the relic's history, but they never heard from him again. Mazzara was not immediately available for comment.