The gold hoard, consisting of gold coins and bars, was discovered by a group of workers on 11/8 at a villa in Sint-Gillis-Dendermonde, located about 30 km northwest of Brussels, Belgium. The property once housed a brewery. They accidentally found the treasure while digging trenches for a new drainage system.
Belgian media estimates the gold's value at approximately 9 million EUR (10,4 million USD).
"We suddenly saw something in the ground," Kobe, 18, told Belgian news site VTM. "Initially, we thought they were one-euro coins, so we dug them up. Then we saw a gold bar. It turned out the treasure's value was much greater."
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Gold bars with numbers were discovered by a group of workers on 11/8 in Belgium. *Photo: Dendermonde Local Police*
According to Kobe, all the gold was stored in a bag and concealed within a wall cavity in the basement of the villa, known as Brouwershuis. The structure was built in the late 19th century for Theophilus Van Assche, the brewery owner.
"No one expects something like that on a normal tuesday morning," Kobe stated.
Brouwershuis is a protected heritage site and is currently being renovated by the social welfare organization CAW Oost-Vlaanderen into offices and residential units. The outer iron gate still bears the two letters "VA", an abbreviation for the Van Assche family name.
Kobe and his colleagues reported the discovery to the police and CAW. The gold has been transferred to a storage facility in Brussels, awaiting investigation by authorities to determine legal ownership. The incident will likely lead to a complex civil dispute, as the construction contractors, CAW, and descendants of the Van Assche family could all claim a portion of the treasure.
Under Belgian law, the discoverer of a treasure must wait at least five years for potential owners to have an opportunity to reclaim their property.
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The Brouwershuis villa is currently undergoing renovation. *Photo: VRT NWS*
For his part, Kobe said that he and his colleagues immediately understood they had to hand over such a valuable find.
"If it were just a few coins, perhaps we wouldn't have done that," Kobe said. "Who knows, maybe we'll eventually receive a finder's fee."
Sources: AFP, Guardian
