It sounds like the plot of a Hollywood film, but this is genuine: a Dutch filmmaker and musician is making headlines this week as begins a dig for hidden Nazi treasure in a Bavarian town. He’s taking guidance from small notes on a piece of sheet music, allegedly written by Hitler’s personal secretary Martin Bormann as German defeat in the World War II was imminent.
Believing he has deciphered the code, Bormann has allegedly already uncovered ‘unidentified metals’ in the area: a possible further clue that there is indeed gold or diamonds hidden in the ground. Not everyone is convinced, though: one local local historian told Der Spiegel “it could be a treasure chest. But it could just be a manhole cover”.
How that search turns out will be worth keeping an eye out, but the idea of real-life buried treasure is not entirely far fetched. Of course many of them are fabrications or urban legends, passed on from person to person in a multi-generational game of Chinese whispers. There are some verified cases of vast wealth being being discovered, however.
Perhaps the most astonishing riches were discovered beneath the 16th-century Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple in India. Discovered in locked underground vaults, the riches found in 2011 included antique giant idols, coins, ceremonial attire and much more. Estimates suggest the find could be worth somewhere in the region of €13.5 billion. There’s also the case of Austrian ‘Andreas K.’, who stumbled across a treasure chest while casually digging in his garden back in 2007. Inside was a collection of around 200 antique rings, brooches and other 650-year old antiques.
Other mythical treasures remain definitively hidden, if they exist at all. Treasure hunters have long flocked to Chile’s Robinson Crusoe Island, for example, with millionaire Bernard Keiser having funded several expeditions to find a legendary €7.5 billion worth of Inca gold. It was internationally reported in 2005 that the treasure had actually been uncovered, but it soon turned out the announcement was a hoax. The hunt has since resumed.
Captain Kidd
The fortune of infamous pirate Captain William Kidd remains of particular interest to many treasure seekers. In 2007, the remains of a ship thought to be Kidd’s long-lost vessel the Quedagh Merchant were discovered off the coast of the Dominican Republic. Alas, while some artifacts were recovered (including a cannon), few riches were found, and the locations of Kidd’s allegedly vast treasure troves still remain a mystery. However, as The Daily Mail pointed out today, the tiny island where the bulk of his fortune is suspected to be buried has just gone up for sale for a cool €3 million. One for the enthusiasts only.
Some people, interestingly, have opted to set up buried treasure hunts on their own. One of the most high-profile examples is the case of the Fenn treasure. American writer Forrest Fenn announced in February that he had buried valuables worth millions of dollars somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. He has been releasing ambiguous clues ever since, with the first said to have been printed in his 2010 book The Thrill of the Chase.
Recently, Fenn published a map in his latest book showing the general region where the ‘prize’ is allegedly buried (it’s a large area, encompassing four US states). The tale of Fenn’s treasure has inspired online communities and sole treasure seekers to hunt for the buried gold & jewels. As of writing, and if we choose to believe Mr. Fenn’s promises, no-one has yet unearthed the goods. But someone out there could soon be a millionaire, courtesy of Forrest Fenn. They'll just have to dig for it.
(Image: Tom Garnett)
