Belgian prosecutors have opened an investigation to establish who owns a gold hoard worth an estimated €9 million that construction workers found hidden behind a cellar wall in the Flemish town of Dendermonde, about 30km northwest of Brussels.
The find was made on August 11 by an 18-year-old student working a summer job with a crew laying new drainage pipes beneath a former brewery in the Sint-Gillis district of the town. The gold, including 49 numbered bars and thousands of coins, had been concealed in a bag sealed inside the brickwork.
The worker, identified only as Kobe, told Flemish broadcaster VTM the crew had first mistaken the objects for ordinary euro coins before realising what they had uncovered. The crew alerted the property owner, who called the police. Officers inventoried the haul and transferred it to a secure government facility in Brussels.
Hanne Ollevier of the East Flanders public prosecutor’s office said it was not yet known where the gold had come from or who owned it. Investigators first had to verify that it was not stolen or linked to crime, she said.
Under Belgian law, anyone with a claim to hidden treasure has five years to come forward. If no owner is established, the civil code provides for the hoard to be divided between the finder and the owner of the property where it was found.
The building is a listed 19th-century villa known as the Brouwershuis, built for brewery owner Theophilus Van Assche, whose initials remain on its wrought-iron gates. Brewing began on the site in 1899 and ended in 1970.
It is now owned by CAW Oost-Vlaanderen, a social welfare organisation converting it into offices and housing, which has said it hopes to use any share of the gold for charitable work.
Piet Buyse, a local historian and former mayor of Dendermonde, said the fortune most likely belonged to the Van Assche family. Prosecutors have not confirmed that theory.
Police spokesman Dirk Feys said several people had already come forward with documents claiming to be descendants of the family.
Police have also warned the public not to visit the site in search of further valuables, saying all the gold found had been removed.
