A home renovation can sometimes uncover a forgotten piece of history, but a group of builders in Belgium may have taken the idea of ‘striking gold’ literally.
Workers renovating a property in the East Flanders city of Dendermonde recently stumbled across a hidden collection of gold bars and coins reportedly worth around €9 million ($14.8 million).
According to Belgian media reports, the discovery was made while the builders were carrying out groundwork to install new sewerage pipes at the property.
“Our first reaction was actually disbelief, amazement,” one of the workers told Belgian public broadcaster VRT.
“At first I thought they were €1 coins. But then we also saw a gold nugget lying there. That’s when we realised it was something bigger.”
The workers immediately contacted police, who later shared an image of the gold bars and coins on social media.
Dendermonde police said the discovery was “inventoried and secured as quickly as possible in a high-security vault belonging to the federal government services”.
The find comes as gold prices continue to recover from a recent slump, with the precious metal rising nearly 8% over the past month after falling more than 20% between March and July.
Who gets the gold?
The discovery has now raised a multimillion-euro question: who gets to keep it?
The property is owned by CAW Oost-Vlaanderen, a welfare organisation operating in Dendermonde, a Flemish community of around 47,000 people.
Local prosecutors have launched an investigation to determine the origins and rightful ownership of the gold.
Under Belgian law, the rightful owner has five years to come forward and claim the treasure, although authorities have yet to determine who that might be.
If no owner emerges, Belgian civil law could see the treasure divided between the person who discovered it and the owner of the property where it was found.
Police have meanwhile warned treasure hunters against visiting the property in search of more gold, saying the house has already been thoroughly searched and the entire discovery moved to a secure location.
Write to Jackson Chen at Mining.com.au
Image: Lokale Politie Dendermonde
