On October 21, 2010, Félix Biancamaria had barely set foot on the platform of the Roissy TGV station when he saw a handful of police officers descend on him. They want to control the contents of his Vuitton bag. The investigators, who all belong to the Central Office for Combating Trafficking in Cultural Property, did not randomly target this dashing Corsican fifty-year-old returning from Brussels. It has already been months since the man was wiretapped as part of a judicial investigation opened by the Marseille prosecutor’s office: he is suspected of trying to illegally sell a solid gold dish weighing almost 900 grams dating from the 3rd century. A piece of inestimable value, both archaeologically and financially.
Félix Biancamaria does not try to deny: the object is indeed in his bag and yes, he had every intention of selling it. After all, he was the one who found this dish in the fall of 1986 in the turquoise waters of Lava Bay, in Corsica. Monday and Tuesday, fourteen years after his indictment, the man, now aged 67, will appear with one of his friends before the Marseille criminal court for “concealment of theft” and “smuggling of a national treasure”, offenses for which they face up to five years in prison. A final turmoil in the incredible affair of this treasure dating from the Roman Empire.
Sea urchin fishing and gold coins
To understand this issue, you have to go back almost forty years, roll up your pants and go sea urchin fishing with Félix Biancamaria, his twin brother Ange and one of their friends, Marc Cotoni. On September 6, 1986, the trio was scouring a cove of Lava Bay in search of these little sea hedgehogs when they were intrigued by a strange sparkle. In a small cavity, about forty centimeters underwater, they discovered three gold coins. If they cannot date them, they suspect that they are old and therefore potentially valuable. To hell with the sea urchins, the trio then embarks on a real treasure hunt. For many months, they methodically comb the bay, each stone is lifted, each fault explored. The father of the twins even bribes a customs agent so that he prevents anyone from approaching by putting up a “protected zone” sign.
According to archaeologists and historians, the treasure is made up of 1,200 to 1,400 pieces, stamped with the seal of four Roman emperors: Gallienus, Claudius II the Gothic, Quintillus and Aurelian. What do they have in common? They only reigned for a few months or years, which makes the pieces so rare. The fishing for gold coins is fruitful: according to Felix Biancamaria, they would have found between 450 and 500. “I think we melted around forty, the ugliest ones,” he says in his book The Treasure of Lava (ed. Albin Michel, 2014). But the treasure also holds other secrets. In August 1986, the Corsican discovered a “twisted plate” in a cavity, under a “huge rock”. The part is difficult to reach, he has to use a jack. The effort is rewarded. “The twisted plate” turns out to be the famous solid gold dish in the center of which a medallion with the image of Emperor Gallienus is inlaid. If the object was found, the medallion has disappeared.
Between 15,000 and 300,000 euros per piece
“It is the most important monetary treasure we know for the 3rd century,” insists Michel L’Hour, general curator of heritage and former director of the department of underwater and underwater archaeological research (DRASSM). The archaeologist is also convinced that a solid gold statuette was discovered by sea urchin fishermen, which they deny. “At first it was just rumors. It was the man who saw the man who saw the man… It took me a long time to believe it, but I finally met witnesses who had it in their hands…” According to the testimonies that Michel L’Hour collected it, it would have been melted down to recover the gold. However, nothing allows us to link this statuette – photos of which the curator has never seen – to the three accomplices.
The trio admits it easily: archeology is not really their thing. The pieces are sold gradually. “They are not the first to have discovered pieces from the Lava treasure and resold them,” insists one of Félix Biancamaria’s lawyers, Me Amale Kenbib. In the 1950s, 41 similar pieces were recovered off the coast of Corsica. Twenty years later, 44 additional pieces have resurfaced. Many of them ended up in the auction room. Sylviane Estiot, a researcher at the CNRS who devoted a work to the Lava treasure, found traces of nearly 450 pieces sold in France and abroad. Each of them is worth today between 15,000 and… 300,000 euros, a value which varies depending on their weight and the imperial period in which they were struck.
A first conviction
Although the pieces were obviously not sold for that price at the time, the Biancamaria brothers and Marc Cotoni began the life of a mogul. They squander their money on luxury cars or watches, casinos, hotels… The golden life, however, is short-lived. In November 1986, authorities were notified that an auction with 18 pieces was to be held in Monaco. The judicial machine is set in motion. 78 pieces are recovered. The golden dish is nowhere to be found. Félix Biancamaria says he got rid of it. In 1995, the trio was sentenced on appeal to 18 months in prison and a fine of 100,000 francs for hijacking a maritime wreck. One might have thought the file was closed but in 2010, it was reopened after a report from Michel L’Hour on a possible resumption of trafficking in goods from this treasure. Which therefore leads to the discovery of the “twisted plate”.
“The problem is that in this case, we have never found the slightest wreck, nor even the slightest ink or trace that could prove that this treasure actually came from a wreck,” says Me Anna-Maria Sollacaro. , Félix Biancamaria’s other lawyer. However, according to her, without this proof, the treasure returns to her client. The council believes that this trial, like the previous one, is a “sleight of hand” trick by the State to recover the Lava treasure.
Its origin is indeed mysterious. Some speak of a shipwreck off the Corsican coast, others speak of a treasure hidden on the island which fell into the sea following a landslide. “We don’t know anything about it, there are several hypotheses but none have been confirmed,” confirms Michel L’Hour. Without traces of wreckage, can we consider this hypothesis to be obsolete? “Not at all,” says the archaeologist. We didn’t look much for this wreck. On this coast, the seabed plunges very quickly, very deeply. It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack. » A judicial source specifies, moreover, that the legal term wreck is not limited to stranded ships but also to their cargo. However, this question will certainly be debated before the criminal court.