7 kg of gold hidden in the forest. Mysterious treasure exhibited in Czech museum

The Museum of East Bohemia in Hradec Kralove has some unique exhibits - gold coins and jewelry discovered near Dvora Kralove, about 50 km from the border with Poland. The discovery became famous at the end of April. At that time, tourists found 7 kg of gold valuables worth over 300 thousand euros in the local forest.

After nearly three months of research, historians and specialists from the Museum of East Bohemia in Hradec Kralove have made unique exhibits available to visitors. These are gold coins, jewelry, and other valuables that were found in early February this year.

Two men, while hiking along the slopes of Mount Zwicziny in northern Bohemia, came across an unusual pile of stones that piqued their interest. When they looked at it closely, they noticed a protruding metal can and, about a meter away, an iron box. After opening it, it turned out that there were almost 600 gold coins, a dozen snuffboxes, ten bracelets, a chain and other valuables inside. All of them were made of gold, while the silver cigarette cases were gilded. The find weighed over 7 kg.

The treasure first ended up in the hands of a numismatist and employee of the Museum of Eastern Bohemia, Vojtech Bradle. In an interview with Czech media, he admitted that the contents of the find were a huge surprise to him. Specialists immediately began examining not only the artifacts themselves, but also the place where they were discovered. They managed to establish that the valuables had been buried underground for no more than a hundred years.

It is still unknown who hid them there and why. Due to the location (the area where the border between Czechoslovakia and the Sudetenland ran during the interwar period), the money and jewelry could have belonged to either a Czech who had to leave the occupied territory after 1938 or a German who feared displacement after 1945. The scenario that it may be Jewish property is equally likely.

The mystery of the treasure is not made any easier to solve by the fact that the coins found date from 1808 to 1915. Some of them most likely came to the Czech territory from the Balkans, others from France, Belgium or even Turkey.

At the turn of February and March, archaeologists from Hradec Králové went to the discovery site to check if there were any other objects there. Archaeologist Miroslav Novak told Czech media that "due to the nature of the find, it must be assumed that it was an exceptional situation and that nothing more will be discovered."

The scientist also explained that the valuables were most likely hidden by their owners, as the bracelets and snuff boxes were used, which means they could not have been stolen from, for example, a jeweler.

According to Czech law, the find is the property of local government authorities, who will soon decide on paying the finder's reward to the men who made the discovery. The reward could be as much as 10 percent of the value of the "treasure."

Tomasz Dawid Jędruchów (PAP)

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