An ordinary workday turned extraordinary for an 18-year-old student after he discovered a hidden gold hoard estimated to be worth €9 million (around Rs 85.90 crore) while working at a construction site in Belgium.
The student, identified as Kobe, was digging trenches for a sewage system with his colleagues when they noticed something buried at the site. The discovery was made on Tuesday at a former brewery on Van Langenhovestraat in Sint-Gillis-Dendermonde, around 30 km north-west of Brussels, The Guardian reported, citing Belgian broadcaster VTM.
‘Then we saw a gold bar’
Kobe initially believed the objects they had uncovered were ordinary coins. “We suddenly saw something lying there,” he told VTM. “At first I thought it was €1 coins. So we started digging them up. Then we saw a gold bar. It turned out to be a bit more than we thought.”
The hoard reportedly contains gold coins, nuggets and numbered bullion bars. The items were hidden inside a bag that had been placed behind a bricked-in section of a cellar wall beneath a grand villa.
The property was originally built in the late 19th century for brewery owner Theophilus Van Assche.
“It’s just not something you expect when you’re working on a regular Tuesday morning,” Kobe said. He added that the treasure appeared to have been deliberately concealed. “It was really bricked in there, not in a safe or anything.”
Gold moved to secure facility
After finding the hoard, Kobe and his colleagues contacted police and notified CAW. The gold has since been moved to a secure facility in Brussels as authorities investigate where it came from and who may legally own it.
Hanne Ollevier of the East Flanders public prosecutor’s office told HLN, as reported by The Guardian, that officials first need to establish that the bullion was not stolen or linked to criminal activity.
The discovery could also trigger a legal dispute over ownership. Building contractors, CAW and descendants of the Van Assche family could potentially have claims to the treasure.
Who will get the gold?
Under Belgian law, potential owners have at least five years to come forward and claim the treasure.
Former Dendermonde mayor Piet Buyse said the Van Assche family’s wealth had “certainly stayed in the family. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if they had decided to put at least some of it in gold, and then to hide it in a safe place.”
Kobe said the group knew the discovery had to be handed over to authorities. “If it had been a few coins, maybe not,” he said. “But maybe we’ll get some kind of finder’s reward eventually.”