Treasures from 400-year-old Spanish shipwreck fetch $2M at auction
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}FILE - This June 18, 2015 file photo shows a gold bar on display in New York. It was one of many items pulled from the 400-year-old Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de Atocha wreckage that were auctioned off by Guernsey's for about $2 million, Wednesday Aug. 5, 2015. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson, File)
Dozens of artifacts from two 400-year-old Spanish shipwrecks have been auctioned for about $2 million.
Among the highlights of Guernsey's sale Wednesday night was a two-handled gold chalice from the Santa Margarita. It fetched $413,000.
A "money chain" of large gold links from the Nuestra Senora de Atocha (noo-EHS'-truh seen-YOHR'-uh ah-TOH'-chuh) sold for $75,000.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The New York auctioneer offered 40 select items salvaged from the ships by treasure hunter Mel Fisher decades ago. He found 40 tons of silver and gold, fine Colombian emeralds and more than 1,000 silver bars.
The ships, laden with New World gold on the way to Spain, went down in a 1622 hurricane near the Florida Keys.
An intricate gold spoon of Peruvian and Spanish origin brought $62,000.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fisher died in 1998; his wife in 2009.