See haunting photos of salvaged Costa Concordia

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This was the Costa Concordia.

In 2012, the Italian luxury cruise liner struck some rocks off the coast of Tuscany, causing the ship to capsize. The unfortunate event left 32 passengers dead which resulted in the captain, Francesco Schettino, being found guilty and sentenced to 16 years in jail for abandoning the ship while it sank.

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Two years later in 2014, the ship was finally towed to the port city of Genoa where it was scrapped for salvage. It was the most expensive maritime wreck recovery of all time, amounting to roughly 1.7 billion dollars.

ISOLA DEL GIGLIO, ITALY - SEPTEMBER 17: The stricken Costa Concordia is upright after the parbuckling operation was succesfully completed around 4 am on September 17, 2013 in Isola del Giglio, Italy. Work began yesterday to right the stricken Costa Concordia vessel, which sank on January 12, 2012. If the operation is successful, it will then be towed away and scrapped. The procedure, known as parbuckling, has never been carried out on a vessel as large as Costa Concordia before. (Photo by Marco Secchi/Getty Images)
The stricken Costa Concordia shown upright after the par-buckling operation was successfully completed on September 17, 2013 in Isola del Giglio, Italy (Photo by Marco Secchi/Getty Images)

After the ship was successfully towed to shore, Germany-based photographer Jonathan Danko Kielkowski swam out and climbed aboard the vessel to capture photographs of the wreckage for his forthcoming book, “Concordia”.

Witness the devastation…

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