Overview
- Construction workers renovating a former brewery in Sint-Gillis-Dendermonde found bars, coins and a nugget hidden in a bricked cellar wall while laying a sewer pipe on Tuesday, and an 18‑year‑old summer worker named Kobe was among the first to spot the items.
- Local police inventoried the recovered items and moved the entire collection to a high‑security federal government vault for safekeeping.
- The East Flanders public prosecutor has opened an inquiry to establish provenance and legal title, and Belgian civil law gives any rightful owner five years to claim hidden valuables before a possible split between finder and property owner if the stash is not linked to a crime.
- The property belongs to CAW Oost‑Vlaanderen, a local welfare organisation that says it hopes the find could benefit its work, while the construction crew handed the haul to authorities and may seek a finder’s fee if claims rules permit.
- The discovery drew would‑be treasure hunters to the site, prompting police warnings and a secured perimeter, and local historians have suggested a possible link to the former Van Assche brewery but that connection has not been confirmed.