 Byne rushed the project in fear that it might be halted at any time by the authorities — Spanish law prohibited the removal of historic artifacts . However , the Spanish government was at that time in disarray and did not enforce the law . Government officials " simply looked the other way " as trucks hauled 700 @-@ year @-@ old stones through Valencia to the docks . When King Alfonso XIII abdicated in April 1931 , leaving the government in the control of the Second Republic , the new officials stopped the project . Byne 's lawyer persuaded the Minister of Labor to allow the work to continue on the grounds that the project employed more than a hundred men and put money into the severely depressed economy . 
