Who Owns Amelia Earhart's Last Plane?

In my never-ending quest for future problems, I give you the world's most famous planewreck. Suppose that Amelia Earhart's plane ("Flying Laboratory") is found someday in international waters. Who would own it? This was an exam question for my Admiralty class last year.

Perhaps this is a case for the law of finds. Finders keepers. An objection to that approach, though, is that we use maritime salvage law for shipwrecks. Salvage law is more equitable and divides property or liability interests among various claimants. In this case there would be the salvor, Purdue University (which financed her final flight) and (perhaps) the United States itself.

But can salvage law be applied to planes? We don't generally apply maritime law to planes, even when they crash into navigable waters. Should we make an exception for Earhart's plane because of its cultural significance?

I stand ready to provide my thoughts when archaeologists find her plane. It belongs in a museum, you might say.