Construction workers in Belgium found a cache of gold valued at roughly €9 million, equivalent to about $10.4 million, while renovating a building in Sint-Gillis-Dendermonde, East Flanders. The hidden fortune came to light as crews worked on a cellar during the installation of a new sewer system at a former brewery property.
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The workers discovered dozens of gold bars, several stacks of gold coins, and other items after breaking into a bricked-up section beneath the villa, which once served as the home of brewery owner Theophilus Van Assche. The property, dating to the late nineteenth century, saw brewing operations from 1899 until 1970.
According to photos shared by the Dendermonde police, about 50 gold bars and sizable piles of coins were found. Upon making the discovery, the workers immediately contacted local authorities.
One of the construction workers, an 18-year-old student named Kobe, described how the team first found coins and assumed they were ordinary. However, the situation changed when a gold bar emerged from the rubble, quickly revealing the magnitude of the find.
Ownership of the building currently lies with CAW Oost-Vlaanderen, a social welfare group that is redeveloping the space for offices and housing. Police took inventory of the treasure and transferred it to a secure government facility, launching an investigation into its origin and legal ownership.
Legal questions and claims to the gold
The East Flanders public prosecutor’s office is determining whether the gold is connected to any criminal cases or if it might have been stolen. At this time, no clear ownership has been established.
Several parties could potentially claim rights to the gold, including the current property owner, the group of workers, or even descendants of the first brewery family. Belgian law allows a period for possible claimants to come forward before any distribution or allocation of found treasure.
News of the unusual discovery quickly attracted public attention, leading the Dendermonde police to issue warnings for people to avoid the fenced construction site. Officials emphasized that all gold has already been removed to a secure location.
Shift in assetholding: From traditional brokers to tokenized assets
While investigators focus on the legal questions surrounding the gold, a parallel transformation is underway in how investors hold and trade valuable assets. Traditionally, the process required the involvement of numerous brokers, but recent developments in blockchain technology are making direct ownership more accessible. Wall Street has begun moving to Web3, as investors adopt platforms such as 1stepSwap to store shares of major U.S. firms, gold, and silver within crypto wallets. These systems tokenize real-world assets and use automated systems to secure optimal prices, fully bypassing intermediaries.
The workers are now left waiting to learn whether their extraordinary find at a standard construction site will entitle them to any share of the multi-million dollar fortune.
Dendermonde police reiterated that the entire treasure has been secured and repeatedly urged members of the public to stay away from the premises, as the gold is no longer on site.
