Underwater Photographer May Face Trial Over Gold Taken From Historic Shipwreck
An underwater photographer could face trial over the illegal sale of gold bars that he plundered from an 18th-century shipwreck.
Underwater photographer Yves Gladu admitted to taking 16 gold bars from the wreck of the Prince de Conty, a French ship that sank off the coast of Brittany. Gladu recovered the bars over around 40 dives between 1976 and 1999.
French prosecutors are now seeking to put the 77-year-old photographer on trial, along with his sister-in-law Annette May Pesty, 78, and U.S. citizens Eleonor “Gay” Courter, 80, and Philip Courter, 82, for the illegal sale of the gold bars for over $192,000, according to AFP.
The Prince de Conty, a French merchant ship trading with Asia, went down during a storm in the winter of 1746. Its wreck was found in 1974 near the island of Belle-Ile-en-Mer, at a depth of 32 to 49 feet.
The site was looted in 1975 after a gold bar was found. In the 1980s, archaeologists recovered items like 18th-century Chinese porcelain, tea crate remains, and three Chinese gold bars. But a storm in 1985 scattered the wreck, halting official excavations.
In 2018, Michel L’Hour, head of France’s underwater archaeology department, noticed five gold bars listed for sale on a U.S. auction site. He suspected they came from the Prince de Conty and notified U.S. officials. The bars were seized and returned to France in 2022.
The seller was identified as Eleonor “Gay” Courter, a Florida-based author and filmmaker. Courter said the gold had been given to her by French friends Annette May Pesty and her now-deceased partner, Gerard. In a 1999 appearance on PBS’s Antiques Roadshow, Pesty claimed she found the bars while diving near Cape Verde, West Africa
Investigators doubted this story and instead turned their attention to Pesty’s brother-in-law, underwater photographer Gladu. Gladu was detained in 2022 and admitted to removing 16 gold bars from the wreck of the Prince de Conty during custody. The photographer said he sold all of them in 2006 to a retired Swiss military officer, and denied giving any to the Courters.
However, investigators found that Gladu had known the Courters since the 1980s and had vacationed with the U.S. couple in Greece in 2011, the Caribbean in 2014, and French Polynesia in 2015.
The Courters were arrested in the UK in 2022 and later placed under house arrest. Investigators concluded the couple had handled at least 23 gold bars and sold 18 of them for more than $192,000, including some through eBay.
The Courters deny any wrongdoing and say the money was always intended for Gladu.
According to a document obtained by AFP, prosecutors in Brest have requested a trial for Gladu, Pesty, and the Courters. A judge must still decide whether to move forward, but prosecutors believe the case could go to trial in autumn 2026.
Image credits: Header photo via U.S. Homeland Security Investigations.
