Workers renovating a cellar in a building in Sint-Gillis-Dendermonde, Belgium, discovered a treasure trove of gold valued at approximately £7.5 million (about $8.1 million USD). The find occurred Tuesday morning in a former brewhouse located about a 40-minute drive from Brussels.
An 18-year-old student worker, Kobe, found the stash while working on sewage piping. Initially encountering coins, he realized the significance of his find upon discovering gold bars and nuggets hidden within a wall. It remains unclear whether the hoard was stored in a chest or wrapped in plastic.
The contractors immediately alerted the client, a charity named CAW Oost-Vlaanderen, and the police. The gold has since been transferred to a secure government vault. Police are investigating the origin of the treasure, noting that many of the gold bars appear to be stamped with dates around 1957 and 1961.
News of the discovery drew a crowd to the construction site, prompting local police chief Patrick Feys to warn potential prospectors to stay away due to the dangerous conditions and the fact that the treasure has already been secured.
Geert Hillaert of CAW Oost-Vlaanderen indicated that locating the original owners could take several years. Investigations will focus on whether the gold is linked to past criminal activity and if any rightful owners can be identified. It is not yet determined if the charity or the construction firm will receive any portion of the found treasure.
In unrelated news, Britain recently abandoned a claim to a £5.5 billion treasure from the Royal Navy shipwreck HMS Sussex, which sank off Gibraltar in 1694. This decision was reportedly made to avoid upsetting Spain, despite the UK's potential claim under international maritime law. Leaked documents from the early 2000s suggest that diplomatic tensions with Spain over the shipwreck's location were a primary factor in the UK government's decision to terminate an agreement with the deep-sea exploration company Odyssey Marine Exploration, which had claimed to have found the wreck.