a storm wrecked a container ship in 2007, off the shore of Dorset... and 17 brand new BMW motorcycles were among the salvage. 1 was never returned to BMW, and it was never used. It was, however, turned into a display exhibit

Hundreds of modern-day 'salvagers' descended on the village of Branscombe, after 114 containers fell off, and bagged themselves all kinds of booty, including the BMW bikes.

Police looked on while plunderers descended on the village - some from as far away as Birmingham and Manchester.

People started breaking open containers, crossing the line from salvage into theft.

Austrian artist Christian Kosmas Mayer watched the debacle unfold on TV with the rest of the world.

“The whole story was fascinating to me and I read everything I could find,” said Christian.

“I also tried to follow the aftermath of the events and what happened to the objects that were taken home. The news stopped covering that soon after but I kept it in my memory.”

When the opportunity came up in 2018 to make an artwork at an emergency mooring station for ships in trouble on the Danube in Austria, Christian's mind returned to shipwrecks and to the Napoli.

He added: “I wondered, how did the story develop? What happened to those motorbikes that the 'finders' refused to give back?

"It was a long process that even involved a detective agency from Devonshire. Finally I tracked down one of three friends who took a BMW motorcycle home that night. They had never given it back and stored it in a garage without ever having used it. Those three men still live around there and consider that night one of the best nights they ever had.”

The three were interviewed by a journalist as they pushed the bike away, sparking the "looters or salvagers" debate in the press.

Christian agreed to buy the bike from the friends in April 2018, after proving that BMW had relinquished ownership of the bike.

He mounted it in a glass case on top of a concrete model of the Napoli at the side of the river Danube in Austria.

The story of the shipwreck and the motorcycle three friends' adventure getting the bike off the beach is told in a panel on the BMW’s number plate.

https://www.foxnews.com/auto/new-bmw-motorcycle-salvaged-from-sunken-ship-now-an-art-exhibit