Recently, a Belgian student working part-time at a local brewery construction site during his summer vacation accidentally discovered a hidden gold vault that had been concealed for over a century while digging sewers. The current market value of this gold is estimated at up to 9 million euros, approximately 70.19 million RMB.
Kobe, the 18-year-old involved, recounted the entire process of discovering the treasure in an interview with the media afterward.
He said that when he first dug it up, he thought it was just scattered 1-euro coins and didn't pay much attention. Then his fingertips touched a solid gold bar. As they continued digging, the two realized that the amount of gold hidden below was far greater than they had imagined—it wasn't just scattered fragments, but an entire private gold vault.
According to subsequent corroboration from local historical records, the hoard stored in this vault includes a large number of ancient gold coins, gold fragments, and standardized gold bars with unique serial numbers. It is believed to be the private property hidden by the brewery owner in his villa's cellar in the late 19th century. Later, due to changes in the landscape, the entire cellar was buried beneath the soil layers during sewer construction, remaining undiscovered for over a century.
Hannah Oliwier, spokesperson for the East Flanders Prosecutor's Office in Brussels, stated that the immediate priority for the relevant authorities is to verify the origins of this batch of gold one by one, confirming whether it is historically recorded stolen property or proceeds from past criminal activities. The subsequent process of determining ownership will be lengthy and could even lead to highly complex civil disputes.
This is because the construction contractor for the site, the welfare organization responsible for the project, and even any descendants of the VA family, who owned the brewery back then, all have legal grounds to claim partial ownership of this treasure.
As for whether 18-year-old student Kobe, who unearthed the gold, will successfully receive his share of the treasure, the relevant procedures are still underway (primarily verifying the source of the gold), and no one can predict the final outcome in advance.