Workers Discover $10 Million in Gold Bars Buried Beneath Belgian Building During Sewer Repairs

A chest packed with gold bars and coins, discovered at a building basement construction site in Dendermonde, East Flanders, Belgium, has become a local sensation. On the 10th, workers laying sewer pipes found the chest hidden inside a basement wall — and once opened, it turned out to hold 49 gold bars along with a large number of gold coins. The total value is estimated at around 9 million euros, or roughly 14.8 billion Korean won. It's the kind of find that makes you think, "who would have guessed something like this was hiding here" — the stuff of movies, really.

Background and Timeline

The building where the gold was found belongs to an East Flanders social welfare organization. Once a brewery, it's now in the middle of renovation work to convert it into social welfare and housing facilities. Kobe, an 18-year-old university student who'd taken a summer job at the site, was the first to spot the gold coins inside the basement wall — he said he initially thought they were old one-euro coins. As site workers went on to check the rest of the chest, 49 gold bars turned up as well, and the find was reported to the authorities right away. In an interview with local media, Kobe admitted, "I briefly considered just keeping the money, but 9 million euros isn't the kind of sum you can hide." It was, in other words, a discovery far too big for an 18-year-old to sit on quietly.

Ownership Dispute and Outlook

Part of what's made this discovery such a talking point is Belgium's distinctive legal framework around ownership of buried treasure. Under Belgian civil law, once a buried find is reported, the original owner has five years to come forward and claim it. If no owner steps forward within that window and no link to criminal activity is found, the finder and the owner of the property where it was found split the find equally. That means Kobe, the actual finder, and the welfare center that owns the building could end up as joint owners of the gold — a possibility that's drawing plenty of interest within Belgium itself.

Prosecutors are still being cautious. Hanne Ollevier, a prosecutor with the East Flanders Public Prosecutor's Office, told local media that "at this point, we simply have no idea where this gold came from or who it legally belongs to." Even basic questions — when the gold was hidden in the wall, or exactly which era the coins were minted in — remain unanswered, which only deepens the mystery. Given the building's history as an old brewery, theories are already circulating, including the possibility that a former owner hid the assets during a war or a period of economic turmoil, but nothing has been confirmed yet.

This case has drawn considerable attention even in Belgium as a find of unusual scale. If no genuine owner comes forward within five years, Kobe — who stumbled into extraordinary luck on what was meant to be a summer job — and the welfare center that owns the building would both walk away with a substantial fortune. Until that five-year claim period runs out, curiosity over who will ultimately end up owning the gold isn't likely to fade anytime soon.