KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) — Two thieves await sentencing for stealing a 17th-century gold bar from a museum in Key West.
In this May 15, 2018 photo provided by the Florida Keys News Bureau, Jean-Lumarque Estime, left, and his daughter Linda Porsha Estime, examine gold artifacts from two Spanish shipwrecks while visiting the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum in Key West, Fla. On Wednesday, May 16, 2018, a Federal jury concluded that Jarred Alexander Goldman was guilty of conspiracy and theft of a gold bar similar to ones in the case. Another man, Richard Steven Johnson, has already pleaded guilty. The two men stole the bar from the museum in 2010 and are to be sentenced July 23. (Rob O’Neal/Florida Keys News Bureau via AP)
Jarred Alexander Goldman of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, was found guilty Wednesday of conspiracy and theft of a major artwork.
That artwork was a bar of gold recovered from the 1622 wreck of a Spanish galleon off the Florida Keys. Weighing 74.85 ounces and valued at $556,000, it disappeared from the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum in 2010.
Authorities say Goldman stood guard while Steven Johnson of Rio Linda, California, lifted the bar from its display case. The FBI recovered only a fragment, sold by Johnson to a man who testified for the prosecution. Johnson pleaded guilty in late April. Sentencing for both men is July 23.
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