US couple facing trial over gold bars taken from 18th Century sunken ship

[Ben Graham]

An elderly American couple could stand trial in France for their roles in the sale of gold bars plundered from a trading ship that sank off the coast of Brittany nearly 300 years ago.

According to Agence France-Presse, French prosecutors have moved to charge 80‑year‑old novelist Eleonor “Gay” Courter and her 82‑year‑old husband Philip, alleging that they had facilitated the sale of gold ingots stolen by a French diver over a 23-year period.

The charges come after investigators discovered that the elderly couple held possession of at least 23 stolen gold bars and sold 18 of them online—through a California auction house and eBay—fetching a total of $192,000.

Stolen gold resurfaces

The gold ingots are believed to originate from the Prince de Conty, a French East India Company vessel that sank during a storm. Its wreck was located in 1974, and official salvages in the 1980s recovered Chinese porcelain, tea chests and three gold bars, before operations were halted after a storm in 1985.

More than three decades later, in 2018, France’s marine archaeology authority, led by Michel L’Hour, became suspicious when five ingots with striking resemblance to those from the Prince de Conty surfaced at a US auction. Local authorities later seized the gold and returned it to France in 2022.

The Courters claimed that the gold they had sold online was legally gifted to them in the 1980s by their French friends—Annette and the late Gérard Pesty—who said the ingots were recovered by Yves Gladu, an underwater photographer turned treasure hunter and Annette’s brother‑in‑law.

In 2022, Gladu admitted to taking 16 gold bars from the wreck during about 40 dives between 1976 and 1999 after being taken to custody, but denied ever having given any of them to the Courters.

The same year, authorities also detained the Courters in England after tracing them via online listings and a 1999 Antiques Roadshow appearance by Annette Pesty showing the gold bars. The couple were initially detained but later released on bail; they declined extradition and returned to the US following a Zoom hearing before a French magistrate.

In their defense, the Courters say they were unaware of any wrongdoing, believing the gold was properly obtained under different US rules. Their French attorney, Grégory Lévy, told AFP they had no criminal intent and did not personally profit from the sale.

Prosecutors have now referred the matter to a criminal court, setting the stage for a landmark trial that could stretch legal definitions across jurisdictions.