Construction workers renovating a brewery in Dendermonde, Belgium, discovered a stash of gold worth approximately £7.6 million (€9 million), authorities have confirmed. The find included around 40 gold bars and 4,000 gold sovereign coins, unearthed from the building's foundations.
Discovery during renovation
The eight workers made the discovery last Tuesday while working on the brewery renovation project in Dendermonde, a city about 19 miles northwest of Brussels. Student and part-time construction worker Kobe Phillips was the first to spot the treasure.
“I thought they were one-euro coins, neatly lined up in a row. We dug them out, and then we saw a small bar of gold lying there, already attached to our digging hammer. There was actually a bit more than we’d thought,” Phillips said, as per Belgian broadcaster VTM.
Police called in
After the discovery, the workers contacted the property owner, who then alerted the police. According to the East Flanders Public Prosecutor’s Office, police were called due to the massive value of the find, and the gold is now being held in a “secure and guarded location.”
Dendermonde Police District chief Patrick Feys revealed that some of the gold bars bear stamps dating to the 1960s, while the sovereign coins feature a range of different monarchs and dates.
Potential claimants and investigation
The discovery has already prompted several potential claimants to come forward. “We already had some citizens who want to claim the gold with different documents to prove that they are descendants,” Feys said.
A police investigation is now underway to determine whether there are any criminal connections to the buried treasure.
