Man finds $3.7m worth of gold in inherited house
(NEWSER) – Inheriting a house from hoarders isn’t so bad when the stuff they hoarded is … a whole bunch of gold.
AFP reports a man inherited a house in France from a deceased relative only to discover $3.7 million worth of hidden gold. “It was under the furniture, under piles of linen, in the bathroom … everywhere,” an auctioneer says.
It started when the unnamed-yet-very-lucky man started moving furniture and found a box of gold coins attached to the bottom of one piece. He continued poking around and soon found an old whisky box with more gold pieces hidden inside.
By the time the treasure hunt ended, he had found 5,000 gold pieces, two gold bars, and 37 gold ingots. The entire haul weighed more than 200 pounds and was reportedly bought during the 1950s and 1960s.
The Telegraph reports that the house is in the town of Evreux in Normandy, the same general region where three builders found about $1 million worth of gold buried in a garden in 2011.
The man has already sold his treasure to multiple buyers, but it’s not quite the windfall it seems. He owes a 45% inheritance tax on the gold, plus three years of back taxes if his relatives hadn’t declared it.
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Top: Some of the gold found in a house that a man took over in Normandy, France, Photo: Bertrand Guay, AFP/Getty Images
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