>> i am hoop. >> i'm baird jones. >> two eccentrics from new york's disco days. >> if you were on baird's list, your social life was assured. >> two oddball art collections. >> all right. >> mel brooks, david bowie, art carney, muhammad ali. >> but the weirdest thing about this story... >> and it's really solid. nothing's going to fall off. >> ...is how the square from the burbs ends up with both. >> i can only imagine this driving around the streets of new york. >> will this two-for-one strange inheritance -- >> i've got $150, can get a $175? once, twice. first piece sold. >> ...ultimately add up? [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ]

[ bird caws ] >> i'm jamie colby, and today and i'm in the pocono mountains of pennsylvania on my way to meet an heir with a head-spinning story that will take us back to 1970s manhattan, the era of punk rock, disco and wild parties at studio 54. >> my name is hugh hooper. back in 2008, my brother hoop received a very strange inheritance. when he died three years later, he left one twice as strange to me. >> hugh, hi. i'm jamie. >> how are you doing, jamie? nice to meet you. >> so great to meet you. you know, i don't come out of manhattan for just anything, but i heard your inheritance is way cool. >> it is. it's crazy. but you can keep manhattan. i'll take the country. >> all right. let's see it. >> you wanna see it? go ahead. >> absolutely. hugh's strange inheritance is actually two separate art collections

that belonged to two separate people. here's some of the first, parked on the pathway outside his home. what is this? >> well, this is hoop's cars. they call this the musicmobile. >> christmas albums, paul simon. [ playing notes ] it still works. and this is just a fraction of the far-out fleet he inherited. >> everything you could imagine, trucks, cars, little bmw isettas where you had to get in between the headlights. >> they do need a little bit of repair. >> well, i don't have the heart to touch it. >> that's because the creator of the auto art is his dearly departed brother, steven douglas hooper. >> this is me and my brother. >> steven is born in 1946 and raised in clifton,

new jersey. according to big brother hugh, he's a cutup from an early age. >> my brother was normal until he was about 8, and then he changed. >> uh-oh. what happened? >> he started acting like stan laurel and mugging and dancing around. and he always had this crazy sense of humor. >> the brothers are drawn down two very different paths. hugh joins the army. little steven idolizes pop-art sensation andy warhol and the psychedelic painters of the 1960s. he wants to be part of that scene. >> as he got into high school, he just got totally into art. >> steven takes a few classes at a small art college. big brother hugh gets married and starts a family. >> where did he get the money to pursue a passion and not have to get a real job like the rest of us? >> well, steven had a job. he worked in a book binder. he operated a forklift. >> but when their mother has a serious health setback, the brothers must figure out a plan.

>> we decided not to put her in a nursing home, so my brother gave up his job at the book binder, and i just paid the bills. my brother was like my hero. he took care of my mother. it's my obligation. we're blood of blood. >> in the early 1980s, with their mom in stable health, steven rents a studio in the edgy east village neighborhood of manhattan. and there, in his mid-30s, he begins to shine. hugh's now the guy with the wife and daughter in jersey, running a trucking company. so, it's not his scene, but he loves steven's stories. >> he showed up at a party one night in greenwich village. he was wearing a bright blue tux with black fleur-de-lis. he looked across the room. somebody else had the same tux. it was tiny tim. they became best friends. >> the goofy falsetto-voiced tiny tim is just one of hoop's famous, near famous, or used-to-be-famous acquaintances, and he's driven to achieve fame, too.

when he gets his hands on an old bmw isetta, he covers it in psychedelic fur. the first hoop mobile is born. >> i am hoop, the self-proclaimed king of art. >> my brother loved to introduce us as twins, and then everybody would go, "hmm." we didn't even look like we knew each other. i was military. he was hippie. >> it's not easy to become a well-known artist. you have to do one more outrageous thing after another. >> that means turning more and more cars into zany sculptures. he's the canvertible and the voodoo volkswagen. >> he actually had a van. he cut the front end off of another van. he bolted it on the back of his. he had two front ends. he said, "i don't know if i'm coming or going. it's the time machine." he covered it in clocks, and he drove all over the place. >> around this time, hoop meets a new york preppie name baird jones, who also likes hanging with the glitterati

and who has his own unique artistic vision. you're about to hear about the other half of hugh hooper's strange inheritance. >> this is a picture that james dean drew. this is tony bennett. >> signed "bennett." >> they're all signed. >> signed by muhammad ali, adolf hitler, charles manson, buddy hackett, paul mccartney and more. that's great. >> vincent price. >> after the break... >> but first our "strange inheritance" quiz question. which '70s hard rock band switched gears to cut the solid-gold disco hit "i was made for loving you"? kiss, iron maiden or the ramones? the answer when we return. my father passed this truck down to me, that's the same thing i want to do with you. it's an emotional thing to watch your child grow up and especially get behind the wheel.

i want to keep you know, stacking up the memories and the miles and the years. he's gonna get mine -but i'm gonna get a new one. -oh yeah when it's time for your old chevy truck to become their new chevy truck, there's truck month. get 18% of msrp cash back on all silverado 1500 crew cab lt pickups when you finance with gm financial. that's $9,000 on this silverado. plus, during truck month make no monthly payments for 90 days. ♪there's a me no one knows ♪waiting to be set free so, what's the empty suitcase for? the grand prize trophy ♪i was born to be somebody

>> so, which '70s hard rock band switched gears to cut the disco gold record "i was made for loving you"? it's a, kiss. the song's cowriter, paul stanley, said he wanted to prove it was easy to make a disco hit. >> so, where were we? oh, right. in the middle of a story about how hugh hooper came into inherit not one but two strange art collections. one was a fleet of car sculptures created by his younger brother,

steven, also known as hoop or the king of art, if you please. the second collection, as you're about to see, was curated apparently at significant cost by a classic new york character named baird jones. >> baird had a standard preppy uniform. khaki pants, baseball hat, and would send out these little invitation cards. >> author marianne macy met baird in the early '80s, when he's known as the columbia university grad student who throws the best parties in town. >> he was from a "social register" family. he had numerous graduate degrees. >> baird starts collecting art created by pop-culture celebrities, like these scribbled drawings by miles davis and jimmy stewart. others are by stars who are also artists, like anthony quinn and david bowie.

baird works for clubs and discos like the famed studio 54, where he's a doorman and party promoter. >> he was extraordinary at getting together really unlikely combinations of people from preppy to downtown grunge. >> the young nightlife impresario rubbed shoulders with hundreds of new york celebs. he leverages those connections to moonlight as a gossip-column tipster. >> besides inviting me to all of his events, he used to provide gossip-column items for me. >> richard johnson is a longtime editor for the ultimate big apple gossip column, the new york post's page six. why did people love him? was it his personality or his connections, his ability to throw a good party? >> i imagine that there's a lot of couples out there now with children, who met at one of baird's party.

>> no one knows when and where baird and hoop meet but by the early '80s, they're best buds. they love andy warhol and discover synergy in merging the psychedelic stars with the disco ball. baird and hoop join forces prompting east village artists at in clubs such as max's kansas city, palladium, and webster hall. >> they were big parties. you know, i mean, they were sort of cheesy. he would say on the invites, "copious hors d'oeuvres." so, they'd be 10 people deep. you'd be lucky if you could get one drink before they closed the open bar. >> some events feature baird's growing celebrity art collection. by baird's counting, he spends over a million dollars to add works by bob dylan, dee dee ramone, vincent price, and buddy hackett. he also snatches up works by simply notorious figures -- john gotti,

adolf hitler, charles manson, and john wayne gacy. his art shows attract even more bold-face names. >> he kept a database, and so he could mail out, you know, 5,000 invitations at a time. if you were on baird's list, you know you're going to run into a 100 people you know. you're bound to see hoop. he sort of had the same crew always there. >> but every great party comes to an end. and in 2007, concern is spreading among baird's closest friends, like marianne macy. >> you know, the 4:00 or 5:00 a.m. lifestyle had to change. he didn't look healthy. people's lifestyles changed, and baird was still out there doing a lot of the same stuff. >> do you want to do it afterwards? >> no, right now is cool. >> i think it was more like work for him later. >> on february 21, 2008, baird jones, life of the party circuit, is found dead in his apartment. he's 53 years old.

do you remember when you heard he had passed? >> i was shocked. i mean, he was way too young to die, and i didn't know that he had ever had any health problems. >> an autopsy reveals it was a heart attack. in his will, baird gives all his property to his good friend hoop, an estate said to be worth $2 million, not including his celebrity art collection. how surprised was he that he had gotten this inheritance? >> he was pretty surprised. he, he didn't expect it, really. >> i think it would just like baird to take care of his buddy, and that's what he did. >> do you want to see a bunch of the celebrity art downstairs? zero mostel. here's a, a jack kevorkian. >> the inheritance doesn't change hoop much. he busies himself with his cars, which are written up in the new york times. he's even interviewed by geraldo and featured in indie films. >> this is my matchbox mobile. i was commissioned by

the toy company mattel. they gave me 500 cars. you can play with it, too. >> but as fate would have it, hoop's wild ride is coming to an end as well. >> tell me what happened. >> he had a rash. he just thought it was psoriasis. and then he got this one rash that didn't disappear, and it continued to get worse. >> the diagnosis -- cancer. >> my artwork gives me inspiration to keep going. i get up, and i look out the window, and i said, "i got to do a little more to that car today." [ barking ] >> hoop keeps up his life as an artist and new york character with help from his older brother. >> i gave him all kinds of nutritional stuff. he had no side effects from the chemo at all right until the very end. >> in september 2011, hoop dies at the age of 64.

>> it's a hole in your life when you lose part of your family. nothing can fill it. >> hoop leaves everything to his big brother, hugh. >> we were opposites but totally bonded. what was mine was his, and what was his was mine. >> and now, what's hugh's are two strange inheritances in one, and as you're about to see, a big dilemma. what to do with it all? >> here's another quiz question for you. these three pictures are from the baird jones celebrity art collection. can you guess which was painted by leonardo dicaprio? "a," "b," or "c"? the answer after the break.

>> so, which of these pictures from the baird jones collection was painted by leonardo dicaprio? it's "c." for the record, "a" was painted by jonathan winters, and "b" by dinah shore. >> in 2011, hugh hooper comes into his strange inheritance, two bizarre art collections created and curated by a couple of quintessential new york city characters. the first was his eccentric brother, hoop, who produced dozens of wacky sculptures from various automobiles. the second came from hoop's preppy party-planner pal, baird jones -- a large collection of artworks by a vast array of famous and notorious figures. he focuses first on his brother's car sculptures. two things are immediately clear. he has no place for them,

and there's no place to sell them. >> all the fun in these cars had been had because he isn't here. >> so, hugh lets his brother's friends cart away any hoop mobiles they fancy. but, hugh, aren't you a little concerned that you'll lose that connection to him? >> no. no, the connection isn't in things. the connection's in your heart. >> hugh is less emotionally attached to the second weird art collection. the hundreds of celebrity paintings and drawings that he inherited through his brother from baird jones. who's that? >> okay. that's the queen of monaco. >> ooh. >> grace kelly. >> so, there's royalty. >> yes. >> jimmy stewart. >> jimmy stewart. >> yeah. >> harvey. that was the character. >> john gotti, "bikini," nice. you know what he was thinking about. >> that's one of my favorites. >> remember, baird jones spoke about spending a million dollars to acquire all this artwork. hugh decides to auction it all off.

>> this is muhammad ali. >> in the ring. >> in the ring. >> hugh, you're going to sell this? >> yes, i am because who's going to enjoy it? nobody's getting any chance to look at it. that's what art is for, it's for people to appreciate. >> you think it's worth anything? >> i would imagine it is. what, i don't know. >> he's about to find out. let's open up at $1,500. $1,600, $1,700, $1,800. >> what's your "strange inheritance" story? we'd love to tell it. send me an e-mail or go to our website, srangeinheritance.com. you're turning onto the street when you barely clip a passing car. minor accident - no big deal, right? wrong. your insurance company is gonna raise your rate after the other car got a scratch so small you coulda fixed it with a pen. maybe you should take that pen and use it to sign up with a different insurance company. for drivers with accident forgiveness liberty mutual won't raise their rates because of their first accident.

liberty mutual insurance. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty ♪ i want some more what's he doin? please sir. i want some more more? he has asked for... thank you well he did say please yes he did and, thank you (all boys): thank you, thank you, thank you.

>> now, back to "strange inheritance." >> in june 2016, hugh hooper's ready to auction off what's left of his strange inheritance, a trove of celebrity artwork collected by a preppy new york party promoter named baird jones. jones is said to have poured more than a million dollars

into the collection before he died and willed it to hugh's brother, hoop. hugh chooses robert rogal of rogallery in long island city to handle the sale. mel brooks, peter falk, jimi hendrix, adolf hitler. >> quite a weird collection but a lot of name-brand material. >> it's the steven hooper, a.k.a. "hoop," celebrity art collection. >> and off we go. internet and phone bidders are standing by. >> opening price on this one is $100. >> it starts quietly with a work entitled "self-portrait with butterfly" by the famous french mime, marcel marceau. >> at $100, $100 and quarter now. got a bid of, go $125. at $125 now, at $125, last call. sold at $100. mel brooks. >> this cartoon scribble by a famous funny man fares

somewhat better. >> $400. peter falk. >> detective columbo beats that easily. >> $600. this john gotti. >> crime pays a little more. >> "bikini on mars," sold for $1,100. we continue. "horror hospital," ink and marker drawing, dee dee ramone. we're at $1,300 right now, looking for $1,400, $1,400. give me $1,500. sold at $1,500. >> and remember that muhammad ali painting called "sting like a bee"? >> $1,500, $1,600, $1,700, >> it packs a bit more punch. >> all done -- $2,800. >> alas, that's the biggest celebrity hit of the night. >> buddy hackett, sold, $250. rudy giuliani, $800. >> at this rate... >> david bowie, sold at $550. jimi hendrix. >> ...baird jones' million-dollar investment in celebrity art... >> sold at $300.

henry fonda. >> ...is looking like a big bust. >> pass it. pass, and we'll pass. moving along. >> this color-pencil doodle by actor ed asner starts with an minimum bid of 400 bucks. >> any bids, $400? and we'll pass. [ buzzer sounds ] >> will matthew broderick do any better? >> any bids at $100? >> $100 only. >> nope. >> and we're passing. [ buzzer sounds ] and we have now "courtyard of the old residency in munich." the artist is adolf hitler. we'll start at $50 and now $75. we're looking for $75 on this. last call, we're at $100. sold at $100 and glad to have it pass me. >> out of the 300 works put up for auction, about a third of them sell. the grand total, 43k. hugh expresses surprise if not disappointment. >> it was some things that didn't sell that really i thought would sell

very easily. but i think it was a good sale, and it also honors my brother, and that's very important to me. >> the unsold items include works by james dean, fred astaire, phyllis diller, and kurt vonnegut, which, come to think of it, is a pretty good start to a invite list for yet another cosmic-art happening baird and hoop are surely planning wherever they are. >> it will be a long time before we see anything like them. they were both really unusual people. together they were fantastic. >> so much that's hip in one generation is totally uncool to the next. old uncle hoop once drove his niece, hugh's daughter, to school in one of his hoop mobiles. the teen was mortified. after that, all hugh had to say to keep her in line was, "watch out, young lady, or uncle hoop will be driving you again tomorrow."

i'm jamie colby. thanks for watching "strange inheritance." and remember -- you can't take it with you. >> after years of scouring the ocean floor, a treasure hunter with a simple motto... >> today is the day. >> today is the day. >> today is the day. >> ...hits the mother lode. >> ...a shipwreck, which had 40 tons of gold and silver and copper on board. >> when his heirs cash in, collectors grab a piece of the action. >> a gold chalice. $100,000 to open the bid. >> but this treasure hunt is far from over. >> is it true that there's a 40-pound bag of emeralds down there? >> it's 70 pounds of emeralds. >> could you look harder?

i'm jamie colby, and, today, i'm driving into key west, florida, in search of treasure. you know, years ago, spanish galleons and pirate ships sailed upon and sank in these waters. more recently, the island's been home to the heirs of a man who became rich and famous searching for the treasure left behind. >> my name is taffi fisher abt, and i inherited a wreck. i mean literally a wreck, a spanish shipwreck. it's an incredible archeological find, and we keep bringing up more treasure all the time. >> you must be taffi. >> welcome to the mel fisher maritime heritage society. >> taffi's father, mel fisher, salvaged tons of treasure from the sea. oh, yeah. solid gold. >> this is an emerald cross and ring that was found in 1982. >> some of his most precious

artifacts are in the museum he founded here in key west. he must have loved the adventure. >> he did. he was an awful lot like tom sawyer. >> tom sawyer had the mississippi. indiana native mel fisher dreams up his childhood adventures on lake michigan. >> he would go to the lake, and he made a dive helmet out of a bucket. >> how did that work out? >> he said that it didn't work at all. >> in world war ii, mel joins the army corps of engineers. >> over in europe, one of his jobs was building latrines. >> but after the war, this hoosier is fated for a higher -- or maybe lower -- calling. >> he'd met some gentlemen who were spearfishing in tampa, and he was amazed that they could go down and stay underwater. >> they're scuba diving. mel falls in love with the new sport. he follows his parents to california, where they buy a chicken ranch.

a lot of clucking and feathers, but he's moving closer to his dream. >> he bought a compressor and started filling his own tanks. >> in 1952, a beautiful local girl named deo horton walks in and steps out with mel. >> he taught her how to scuba dive, and they decided that they were gonna open a dive shop. >> together, they lead dive charters to explore shipwrecks off the california coast. >> treasure hunting was really a passion for my father. it was full of romance and adventure. >> soon, mel and deo have a thriving business in redondo beach and three boys -- kane, kim and dirk. >> my mother was trying to get other women to go diving, so she decided she was gonna set the world's record for staying underwater. >> and she did -- 55 hours and 37 minutes. as deo put it, "worst case of

dishpan hands in history." she is pregnant at the time with taffi. were you born with a wet suit? >> i was born with webbed feet. [ both laugh ] >> eyeing bigger fish to fry, mel sells the dive shop and moves his family to the florida coast to become a full-time treasure hunter. he sets his sights on one particular prize. >> he read about a shipwreck, which had 40 tons of gold and silver and copper on board. >> her name is nuestra señora de atocha. in september 1622, the spanish galleon leaves havana, bound for seville. she's loaded with treasure from spain's central and south american colonies -- gold bars, finely worked religious articles, and gold chains that some spanish officials are trying to smuggle home in their baggage. [ thunder crashes ] but a caribbean storm sends the atocha to the bottom.

finding her wreck becomes mel fisher's obsession. every morning, he rousts his crew with a simple statement -- "today is the day." >> and, of course, every day, my father is saying, "today is the day. we're gonna hit it. we're almost there. it'll only take a few more months, and we'll have it all." >> finally, mel's search turns up a couple of musket balls from the atocha, plus some coins, a gold chain, and an anchor, then three silver bars -- 76 pounds each. he's getting warmer. >> but then it would kind of piddle off, and he'd say, "that's all right. we'll find it tomorrow." and the next day, "today is the day." >> mel and deo's son dirk and dirk's wife, angel, pitch in to run the northwind, one of their salvage boats. >> they found nine bronze cannons, and that was major, but there was nothing much around those cannons. >> what are the next five years like? >> mostly just empty holes. digging hundreds of thousands of empty holes.

>> mel is out of money, living on a rundown houseboat. then, in july 1975, a faulty valve on the northwind leads to tragedy. what happened? >> my brother dirk and his wife, angel, and a good friend, rick gage, were killed one night when the boat capsized at sea. >> and that tragedy on the water didn't deter dad from wanting to be on the water? >> i think if there was one time ever that my parents considered not continuing, that was it. >> tell me about your brother dirk. >> we were all very depressed about it, but we decided that dirk would want us to continue. and, so, it actually increased our determination. we were gonna find it for dirk. >> so mel returns to the trail of scattered pieces of the

atocha's cargo, knowing each tiny find is a data point that inches him closer to the wreck site. >> we'd find a nail, maybe, a ballast stone, just little teases. >> "teases" that tell mel he must be closing in. others sense it, too, including the government, which wants a cut. in 1977, the federal government and the state of florida claim they own everything salvaged from the atocha. mel fights back. >> he found a lawyer who was in admiralty law, and they arrested a piece of the shipwreck and put it in my father's custody. >> "arresting the wreck" is the legal action a marine-salvage operator files when he's found an abandoned shipwreck. the law wants to create an incentive for people like mel to find valuables lost at sea. that's just the start of his battle with the government. it takes seven years, 151 trials

and hearings, $1.2 million in legal fees, and a trip to the u.s. supreme court. but, finally, mel fisher prevails. no one else can own it. >> nope. it's ours. >> no wonder you're smiling all the time. >> [ laughs ] >> after he beat the government in court, he said, "america has one of the best governments in the world, because a little guy like me can fight and win." >> mel fisher may own the atocha, but the main cargo hold is still out there somewhere. then, on july 20, 1985, after almost 17 years of scouring the sea, the radio at mel's key west office crackles to life. it's his son kane. >> my brother called in and said, "you know, get dad on the radio. i got some important news to tell him." >> what was the news? >> the news was that we had found the main pile of the atocha. it was an 80-foot-long pile of

silver bars and coin chests and jewelry. it was just there sticking up out of the mud. >> is today the day? find out next. >> but first, our "strange inheritance" quiz question. how many sunken spanish treasure ships lie undiscovered off the florida coast? the answer when we return. ♪ hawaii is in the middle of the pacific ocean. we're the most isolated population on the planet. ♪ hawaii is the first state in the u.s. to have 100% renewable energy goal. we're a very small electric utility. but, if we don't make this move we're going to have changes in our environment, and have a negative impact to hawaii's economy. ♪

verizon provided us a solution using smart sensors on their network that lets us collect near real time data on our power grid. (colton) this technology is helping us integrate rooftop solar, which is a very important element of getting us to our renewable energy goals. ♪ (shelee) if we can create our own energy, we can take care of this beautiful place that i grew up in. ♪ small conversations can make a big inpact. in every family, i grew up on tour with my parents. kind of different,but we bonded over music and we talked. honest conversatiions like when my dad shared his experiences as an alcoholic. your honesty gave me a sense of integrity that i wanted in my own life. and i wanted you to know from someone who's been in recovery more than 30 years now,that hard work is what creates success, not alcohol or other drugs, in whatever you do. talk.they hear you.

time and time again, you know when i'm doing street magic..i'll walk up to someone and i can just see they're against me right? they don't want to be amazed. they don't want this experience to happen. ♪i needed to try but then the magic happens. and all of that falls away. (amazement & laughter) it's the experience of waking up and seeing things the way you saw them before they became ordinary. ♪i need never get old i'm looking for that experience of wonder.

>> the answer is "b." the 40 to 50 wrecks likely contain billions of dollars in precious metal and jewels. >> july 20, 1985. yes, this really is the day for mel fisher. after almost 17 years of searching, the treasure hunter finally discovers the main cargo hold of the atocha, a spanish galleon that sank off key west in 1622. >> 55 five feet down from us, there was this big pile of silver bars about 80 feet long, and then money chains, gold chains, about 6 pounds of emeralds. >> 6 pounds of emeralds. he's lived nearly two decades on the financial edge, been written off as a kook and a charlatan, and rededicated himself to his goal after losing a son and

daughter-in-law to the sea. but now mel fisher has accomplished his mission. >> the value of what we found, at that time, was about $400 million. >> there were so many people who were doubters, but at this point, every magazine in the world came and wanted dad on the cover. >> mel even gets on "the tonight show" and impresses johnny carson with his favorite treasure -- a 6-foot-long gold chain, which he likes to wear around key west and show to kids. >> do you have a favorite piece so far? >> yeah, my favorite piece is a poison cup. it's a solid-gold cup and it has very beautiful engraving. and in the bottom of the cup is a mount for a stone. and if anything with poison was poured in the cup, the stone would change colors. >> is that what you like about it? the story? >> well, that, plus i found it myself. [ laughs ] >> mel's daughter, taffi, oversees archiving the artifacts his divers bring up.

so, the fine jewelry, obviously, is right up my alley. this rosary is unbelievable. >> yes, this a gold rosary with ebony inlay. >> oh! mel salvaged thousands of spanish coins like this one. >> the cross represented the ten commandments. you know the ten commandments, don't you? >> yes. >> well, if you never broke any, i'll let you have that. [ both laugh ] >> mel shares a big chunk of the treasure with his crew. how much is a secret. but suffice it to say there were a bunch of new millionaires in key west. >> did your folks' and your life change? did they live bigger? what'd they do? >> well, a little bit. it was nice not to have to worry about money anymore. but, you know, they stayed in the same house. after the atocha, it became more like a hobby, 'cause he didn't have to work anymore. but he loved it. he loves the search and the thrill of finding it. >> my father said, "taffi, remember, we're only temporary custodians of all of this

treasure. hundreds of years ago, it all belonged to someone else, and then it was lost. and then we found it, and we've been custodians for a while. and hundreds of years from now, someone else will have it." >> words of a man who relishes the hunt for treasure more than possessing it. in 1994, mel fisher begins a battle with lymphatic cancer. he continues to search for treasure almost to his last days. he dies at age 76, in 1998. what was it like when dad passed? >> we had a big celebration of his life. we took his ashes out and put them over the atocha site on father's day the following year. >> in 2009, mel's widow, deo, passes away, too, leaving the treasure of the atocha to her children. what is like to inherit something that was underwater for 400 years? that's pretty strange. >> yeah, it's a very strange inheritance and very exciting at

the same time. >> exciting, in part, because before deo dies, she tells her children it's time to begin selling off the atocha treasure. >> selling once. selling twice. >> that's next. >> here's another quiz question for you. according to legend, a 17th century ghost ship called the flying dutchman is cursed in which way? the answer when we return. my father passed this truck down to me,

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>> the answer is "a." for hundreds of years, sailors

reported seeing the phantom ship aimlessly wandering the seas. >> for almost two decades, as he searched for the atocha, mel fisher confronted doubt, suspicion, financial risk, and personal tragedy, yet he never gave up. when he dies, in 1998, his heirs inherit the full-time job of running the salvage business and managing the fortune in treasure he left them. and in august 2015, in new york city, they're in the midst of a major piece of business -- auctioning off a big chunk of the gold, silver, and jewels from the atocha. >> these objects have an intrinsic value, but it goes way beyond that because of the history of how they were discovered. >> arlan ettinger, the founder of guernsey's auction house, has sold everything from soviet art to jerry garcia's guitar. >> we'll begin tonight with lot number 1, the three silver

coins. and $2,000 for them. >> mel fisher's daughter, taffi, has spent months preparing for this day. >> it's exciting and a little nerve-racking. >> part of the proceeds will be donated to a foundation taffi and her husband established in memory of their 12-year-old son, michael, who died in 2006 of sudden cardiac arrest. >> lot number 11. fair warning at $750. >> so, we're just hoping that it's appreciated and loved and people bid high. >> the fisher family decides this auction will have no reserve, or minimum bid, for most of the objects. >> lot number 83, the silver coin. $950. $1,000 is bid. $1,100. $1,100 is bid. $1,200. $3,500. and now $3,750. any more beyond -- >> yes. >> $3,750. sold here for $3,750. >> the smuggler's silver coin. $18,000 is the bid. $19,000 is bid. and now $20,000.

fair warning at $30,000. last chance. $30,000 for bidder number 607. >> and what about mel's favorite? the gold chain he wore on "the tonight show" just after discovering the mother lode. >> selling once. selling twice. sold to the telephone for $60,000. okay, lot number 51, the gold bar. $55,000 is bid. and now $60,000. >> you marvel at their brilliance. how is it possible that these were under the water, in turbulent conditions, for 400 years and look like they were crafted yesterday? >> $60,000. $65,000. $70,000. and $75,000 next. >> yes! >> $75,000. sold for $75,000. a fabulous emerald cross. $85,000 is bid. and now $90,000. $90,000 is bid. and now $95,000. sold for $95,000.

now lot number 53, the gold disk. $60,000 is bid. and now $65,000. $80,000. and now $85,000. and $90,000 is bid. and now $95,000 on the phone. selling once. selling twice. sold for $110,000. the gold chalice. $350,000. and $375,000 next. sold here for $350,000. aggregate >> some buyers get bargains, but the final tally of just over $2 million is a tidy sum for both the fisher family and taffi's foundation. >> some of the bids were very high. some of the bids were very low. but, you know, everything sold, so i don't have to carry anything home. maybe can save some lives. and maybe we'll just go out and find a whole bunch of more treasure. >> a whole bunch more treasure, because wait till you hear how much atocha booty remains beneath the sea. excuse me?

that's next. what's your "strange inheritance" story? we'd love to tell it. send me an e-mail or go to our website, strangeinheritance.com. you're headed down the highway

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>> now back to "strange inheritance." >> their auction has just raked in more than $2 million, but mel fisher's heirs are not done searching for treasure. you see, they not only inherited the fortune that's already been salvaged from the atocha, but the rights to anything else from the wreck site. how much is left down there? >> 250 million. >> what? >> dollars worth of treasure. >> excuse me? >> $250 million worth of treasure. >> mel used to say, "today's the day." his kids predict there will be more "days" ahead. >> i saw the sunset last night, and there was a green flash. that means we're gonna find a

big pile today. we'll find the stern-castle of the atocha that's been so elusive very soon, maybe tomorrow. >> okay. >> have you ever had a real job? >> you mean besides treasure hunting? no. >> the fisher family spreads their love of treasure hunting around. several times a year, they run cruises to the site of the atocha. it's a chance for even non-divers to search for treasure without getting their feet wet. >> today's the day. >> using a system called an airlift, divers suck up sediment from the ocean floor right into these troughs on deck. >> when you see a green emerald with that white sediment, you can't miss it. >> well, i was digging through the sand. a green emerald popped right out at me. i couldn't believe it. >> great start for the day. >> is it true that there's a 40-pound bag of emeralds down

there? and are you looking for it? >> actually, it's 70 pounds of emeralds. >> should i tell you green's my favorite color? [ thunder crashes ] four centuries ago, nature intervened, and the treasure of nuestra señora de atocha never arrived at its original destination, but through the labors of one dedicated -- and slightly obsessive -- man, it was not lost forever. now it will be scattered across the world -- to collectors, museums, and churches. after that, who knows? as mel fisher said, nobody holds on to this treasure for long. mel fisher's heirs clearly inherited their father's undying fascination with shipwrecks. taffi told me, "once you've seen the ocean paved with gold, it's hard to quit." or, as mel used to say, "it's not the find. it's the hunt." and, kim, if you do come up across that big old bag of emeralds, please give your pal,

jamie colby, a call. i'm jamie colby for "strange inheritance." and, remember, you can't take it with you. >> thanks to our powerful trade policies, the trade deficit is falling and falling and falling. trying to break in this morning, two very big stories for you. first, the report said the white house may raise the stakes in the trade war with china up in tariffs on 200 million in chinese goods to 25% from 10%. >> apple firing on all cylinders reading analyst earnings estimates, the stock soaring 4% after news that apple purchased the $1 trillion market cap mark. cheryl: the optimist in the u.s. and china is making progress on trade