A court in Uruguay has ruled that a bronze Nazi eagle from a German battleship that fought in one of the first naval skirmishes of World War II must be sold. Half of the proceeds will go to the government and half to the salvage team that found the insignia in the River Plate off Montevideo in 2006 after a decade of searching, the ruling said.

Since it was found, the sculpture from the ship called the Admiral Graf Spee has been kept in a navy warehouse.

It features an eagle with its wings spread wide open and clutching a swastika in its talons. The sculpture adorned the stern of the Admiral Graf Spee, the pride of the German navy.

The Admiral Graf Spee's captain, Hans Langsdorff, scuttled the battleship on December 17, 1939 following the Battle of the River Plate.

The Nazi ship, one of the Third Reich's largest battleships, briefly sought sanctuary in Montevideo's harbor from two British ships and a New Zealand battleship that were seeking to sink the Admiral Graf Spee. After sailing out of the harbor, Langsdorff ordered the Admiral Graf Spee scuttled - he apparently fell for a ruse designed to convince him a large British naval force was awaiting him in international waters.

Several days after that humiliation, Langsdorff committed suicide.