Workers find 9 million euro gold treasure hidden in wall of former Belgian brewery

Discovery beneath a former brewery

On Tuesday, 11 August, construction workers drilling beneath a former brewery in Dendermonde, East Flanders, struck what they initially took for one-euro coins lodged in a cellar wall. The building, known as the Brouwershuis, was built in the 1890s and was being renovated to create transitional housing for homeless people. The workers were installing sewage pipes when 18-year-old Kobe Philips, a student working a summer job in his first week, noticed the coins. Upon closer inspection, the team realized the cache was far more valuable: gold bars and coins estimated at roughly 9 million euros, or about $10 million.

The find consisted of 49 gold bars and more than 4,000 coins, according to the New York Times. BFMTV reported a different tally of roughly 50 bars and about 100 coins. All bars are marked with engravings, but neither their manufacture dates nor when they were sealed into the wall have been disclosed.

Police chief Patrick Feys of the Dendermonde district said he initially dismissed the call as a prank.

I thought it was a joke, because things like that normally don't happen in real life.

From cellar wall to federal vault

Once the scale of the discovery became clear, the workers contacted police immediately. Four people counted each piece under surveillance cameras at the local station to prevent any dispute. Feys said he did not relax that day until the gold was transferred to a federal high-security vault. Police changed their Facebook profile photo to gold coins and warned the public not to visit the fenced-off site, noting it has already been thoroughly searched.

Site manager Mario Van Mol recalled the moment the workers called him over.

They were shouting: 'We found gold!', but I didn't believe it. Then I looked more closely, I took the coins in my hands, and it was indescribable.

Kobe Philips told Belgian broadcaster VRT that hiding the find was never an option. The gold was stored in plastic bags inside a chest embedded in the wall of a cellar that had been filled in. Philips said the gold appeared to have been deliberately concealed rather than stored in a conventional safe.

Who owns the treasure?

The property belongs to CAW Oost-Vlaanderen, a social services organization serving the Dendermonde area. Its director, Geert Hillaert, described his first reaction as shock and surprise, and expressed hope the funds could support the organization's work and the daily needs it addresses.

Prosecutors in East Flanders are investigating whether the gold was acquired legally. If it turns out to be stolen or linked to a crime, neither the finders nor the property owner will receive it. Under Belgian law, the original owner or heirs have five years to come forward. If no one claims the treasure, civil law dictates it would be split between the workers who found it and the owner of the property.

Former Dendermonde mayor and historian Piet Buyse identified the brewery's original owner as Théophile van Assche, who built the brewery in the late 19th century. Van Assche's three children ran the business until it closed in 1970. None of the children married or left heirs, according to Buyse, who told HLN that the owners may have hidden the gold in the cellar during the Great Depression of the 1930s, when banks went bankrupt.

It is possible they decided not to use a bank safe, because banks went bankrupt during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Hillaert cautioned the gold could stem from dubious practices. The East Flanders prosecutor's investigation remains ongoing, with no owner identified.