France Seeks Trial for U.S. Couple Linked to Stolen Shipwreck Gold

Two of the five gold ingots that were returned to France / Photo - U.S. Homeland Security Investigations

An American author and her husband may be standing stand trial in France for their alleged involvement in the illegal sale of gold bars taken from an 18th-century shipwreck.

The gold was aboard a wreck off the coast of Brittany, a historical and cultural area in northwestern France that's considered part of the French Republic.

French authorities allege that Eleonor “Gay” Courter, an 80-year-old Florida-based novelist, and her husband, Philip Courter, helped a French diver sell the Chinese gold ingots stolen decades ago from Le Prince de Conty, a French trading vessel sunk in December 1746. The merchant frigate was returning from a trip to Nanjing, China when it went down in just 30 feet of water. Only 25 of the 229 people onboard survived. It wasn't discovered until 1974, resting just 10 miles from shore near the small coastal island of Belle-Île-en-Mer. A violent storm in 1985 also dispersed the wreckage, scattering it across the sea floor and making more artifacts visible.

The couple has consistently maintained their innocence and deny any criminal intent.

When the shipwreck was identified in the mid-1970s, a gold ingot was found with the wreckage which immediately made it a target for looting. Michel L’Hour, the former chief of France’s Underwater Archaeology Research Department, joined the investigation in the late 1970s.

Philip and Eleonor Courter / Photo - @rhoadescourter Instagram

In 2018, after more than 40 years on the case, L'Hour flagged a suspicious sale of five gold ingots through a U.S. auction house. U.S. authorities seized the ingots, which had an estimated value of about $230,000 USD, and two other artifacts, which were returned to France in 2022. The New York Times covered the story of their return.

The investigation identified Eleonor Courter as the seller. She told authorities the gold had been gifted to her by French friends Annette May Pesty and her late husband, Gérard Pesty. In 1999, Annette Pesty appeared on an episode of Antiques Roadshow in Tampa, Florida with five of the ingots and an underwater photo of gold bars, claiming they had been recovered while diving off Cape Verde in Western Africa. Authorities were suspicious of her story and turned their focus to Yves Gladu, Pesty's brother-in-law and an underwater photographer.

A trial in 1983 trial had found five people guilty of embezzlement and receiving stolen goods plundered from the Prince de Conty, but Gladu was not among them.

Belle de Mar Island -/ Photo Michel L'Hour

L'Hour believes about 100 gold ingots were taken from the shipwreck, some of which have been melted down, while others he believes are still being stashed by the thieves.

In 2022, Yves Gladu admitted to stealing 16 gold bars from the wreck during about 40 dives between 1976 and 1999. Each gold bar weighs about 13 ounces, or 0.8 lbs. Gladu claimed he sold them to a retired military man living in Switzerland and never gave any to the Courters. But, investigators found evidence the Courters had a longstanding friendship with Gladu, including evidence they'd travelled together to Greece, the Caribbean, and French Polynesia between 2011 and 2015.

Authorities now suspect the Courters may have been in possession of at least 23 gold bars, and sold at least 18 of them for more than $192,000 USD using various auction sites including eBay. The couple claims the proceeds were intended for Gladu.

The Courters were arrested in the United Kingdom in 2022 and placed under house arrest in London before eventually being returned to the United States. Their attorney, Gregory Levy, said the pair “firmly deny any criminal wrongdoing,” describing them as friends who were merely safeguarding ingots for their French acquaintances.

“As for the sales, they took place on eBay, which shows how much the Courters wanted to hide from them,” Levy told The Independent, adding that even the British Museum had purchased one of the bars.

“[The British Museum] could not have been unaware of its provenance and deserves to be investigated by the French justice system, rather than two American octogenarians who knew nothing about French law,” Levy said to the Independent.

A French prosecutor has requested that Eleonor and Philip Courter, along with Gladu and Pesty, be brought to trial. If approved by an investigating magistrate, proceedings could begin in 2026. #news