Gold rush! €9m treasure discovered behind Belgian cellar walls — but who gets it?

Builders renovating a property in East Flanders, Belgium, have made an extraordinary discovery after uncovering a stash of gold reportedly worth around €9m (£7.6m) hidden inside the walls of a cellar. The construction crew found gold bars and coins earlier this week while drilling through the property to install new sewage pipes. The unexpected discovery has now raised a major question: who will ultimately be entitled to the fortune?

Both the builders who found the treasure and the charity that owns the property could potentially have a claim, depending on the outcome of a police investigation and Belgium's laws governing hidden treasure. Police have secured the gold and warned members of the public against visiting the construction site in search of additional treasure. The hoard was discovered while workers were carrying out foundation work. Among those on the team was 18-year-old student Kobe, who was working during the summer.

"Our first reaction was actually disbelief, amazement," the student, named Kobe, told Belgian public broadcaster VRT.

“At first I thought they were €1 coins. But then we also saw a gold nugget lying there. That's when we realised it was something bigger.” The workers quickly contacted police after realising the scale of what they had found. Soon after, they alerted police to the discovery and explained that them keeping it for themselves was not an option.

"There are so many coins and bars, it would be almost impossible," the site manager Mario told VRT. “Besides, that would be theft.” Kobe agreed: “€9m, you simply can't keep that hidden.” The property is currently owned by CAW Oost-Vlaanderen, a charity that provides welfare support in Dendermonde, a Flemish community of around 47,000 people.

The charity's director, Geert Hillaert, said he was shocked by the discovery and expressed hope that the money could eventually benefit the organisation's work.

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His comments have added another dimension to the mystery, as the charity could potentially receive a share if no rightful owner is identified and the legal conditions for a finder-and-owner division are met. Police have urged people to stay away from the active construction site. Authorities say the area has already been extensively searched and that the recovered gold has been moved to a secure location. The East Flanders prosecutor's office has launched an investigation into the origins of the treasure and who may have legally owned it.

Under Belgian law, the rightful owner has five years to come forward and claim hidden treasure. However, authorities have not yet established who the owner might be. If nobody successfully claims the hoard, civil law provides that hidden treasure discovered on someone else's property can be divided between the person who found it and the property's owner. That rule applies only if the treasure is not found to have any connection with criminal activity.

For now, the builders and CAW Oost-Vlaanderen face a lengthy wait while investigators attempt to determine where the gold came from and whether anyone has a legitimate claim to it. What started as routine renovation work has therefore turned into a multimillion-euro mystery, and potentially one of the most remarkable treasure discoveries in Belgium in recent years.