The special presentation Vitrine EXTRA, which presents at regular intervals different ancient objects temporarily in the permanent exhibition of the Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, takes visitors in its fifth edition to the bottom of the sea, to the finds of a Roman shipwreck and the critical question of cultural property protection today.

In antiquity a great deal of trade was transported via sea routes. The bays of the Balearic Islands in Spain, in particular the island of Cabrera, offer favourable natural harbours. Since these are oriented to the north, they were in part difficult to reach for ships coming from the east, also due to dangerous currents in front of the island. Numerous wrecks document the importance – yet also the dangers – of sea travel in this region. Around the island of Cabrera alone, until today 14 shipwreck sites from the Phoenician period (after the 9th cent. BCE), the Roman period, as well as the modern era are known.

»A maiore XII in altum abest Capraria, insidiosa naufragiis…« | ‘12 miles away on the open sea lies Capraria, dangerous due to its shipwrecks...’ (Pliny, Naturalis historia, Vol. III, Chap. 34)

The objects displayed in the programme of the Vitrine EXTRA #5 were found in the 1960s and 1970s: Roman amphoras, anchor stocks of lead, lead ingots, a round copper ingot, and a Roman helmet. Some of these objects indicate a specific, already known shipwreck: the wreck ‘Moro Boti A’ of the find-site Cabrera IV.

The wreck lies to the north–west of the island Cabrera near the cape Morobuti in the area of the bay Cala Gandulf, around 50 m below the surface. Already in the early 1960s it was known due to a large amount of discovered and published amphoras. An archaeological investigation, however, did not immediately take place; instead sport divers began to visit the wreck and to take away objects as souvenirs. The find-site was thereby increasingly destroyed.

Again and again, archaeological objects were and are removed from the seabed in uncontrolled fashion by amateur divers. National protection acts – since 2001 also the UNESCO agreement regarding the protection of underwater cultural property – are designed to prevent this. Only in this manner can it be guaranteed that the objects are made public for research, and that in particular the overall context of the finds – indispensable for the chronological classification and the understanding of the wreck – remains legible.