Looking For the Owner: Builders Find US$10.5M Gold Stash Inside Belgian Property
Construction workers in Belgium found a gold stash valued at about US$10.5 million while installing sewer pipes at a former brewery property in Sint-Gillis-bij-Dendermonde on Tuesday, Aug. 11. Authorities said the discovery included 49 gold bars and more than 4,000 gold coins. Eight workers were involved in the excavation. Among them was 18-year-old Kobe Philips, […]
On Tuesday, August 11, construction workers in Belgium made a surprising discovery while installing sewer pipes at a former brewery property in Sint-Gillis-bij-Dendermonde. Valued at approximately US$10.5 million, the cache consisted of 49 gold bars and over 4,000 gold coins. Among the eight workers involved was 18-year-old Kobe Philips, a student participating in a summer construction job.
Upon initially mistaking some objects for €1 coins, the workers eventually identified a gold bar, realizing they had stumbled upon something far more valuable. They promptly reported their discovery to the local police. Authorities subsequently cataloged the gold and transferred it to a secure government vault for further examination.
The property, a late-19th-century building located in Sint-Gillis, a district in Dendermonde, was once owned by Theophil Van Assche, a prominent local brewer whose family operated the brewery from 1899 to 1970. The Van Assche family's connection to the property does not automatically grant them ownership of the gold, and any claim by their descendants would require evidence linking the cache to a former owner.
The East Flanders Public Prosecutor's Office is investigating the origin of the gold, aiming to determine who originally owned it, when it was hidden, and whether it might be connected to a crime. The discovery of gold bars bearing dates from the 1950s and 1960s, as well as older coins, may provide clues about the cache's production timeline, but these details alone do not establish ownership or concealment history.
Under Belgian law, found property generally remains the original owner's property, and the finder can claim ownership if they follow proper reporting procedures and the owner does not come forward within five years. In cases where the owner cannot be identified, the value of the hidden property may be divided between the finder and the property owner, as established by Article 3.59 of Belgium's Civil Code.
Potential claimants include an identifiable former owner or heir, the current property owner, and the workers who found the cache.
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