You don’t have to arm yourself with special equipment and go to the edge of the world to find a treasure. Sometimes it lies just beneath your feet, although you may not even know about it.
We at Bright Side brought you 9 stories of people who found real treasures by pure accident. And a little bonus at the end of the article awaits you as well!
9. A van Gogh painting
An unknown painting by van Gogh called Sunset at Montmajour had been sitting around in a Norwegian collector’s attic for many years. The reason? In 1908, a guest told him it was a fake. The host got upset and took the painting down, forgetting all about it. 100 years after the collector’s death, the new owner of his house found the picture and took it to experts, finding out it was a priceless original by van Gogh himself.
8. A stash for Alan
When an ordinary American family decided to do some renovations, they suddenly stumbled upon a hidden safe with $51,000 inside, along with a bottle of bourbon dated 1960 and a book called A Guide for the Perplexed. Inside the book was a photo, on the back of which was a note from someone named Vincent reading, "Alan, I have a book you must read." The spouses decided to find Alan and give him the items but with little success so far.
7. A Fabergé figurine
In 2013, George and Betty Davis were sweeping their attic in New York when they noticed a small and shabby box with a little figurine inside.
They called an expert, and it turned out to be a miniature of a cossack commissioned by Russian Czar Nicholas II himself in 1912 for his wife. After the events of 1918, the figurine came into the hands of a US entrepreneur, and in 1934 he sold it for $2,250. Karl Fabergé made only 50 figurines, all considered a great rarity, and the couple sold this one at auction for $5.2 million.
6. A room for servants
Archie Graham-Palmer and his wife, Philippa, inherited a big house built at the end of the 18th century. It had been bought by Palmer’s ancestors at an auction in 1830 and remained uninhabited for a long time.
The couple decided to restore the family mansion and started with the cellar, where they found a blocked door. Behind it, they were astounded to see a beautiful Victorian kitchen furnished with items more than 80 years old. Later, they learned it had been closed after the war, and, previously, servants had lived and cooked there.
5. A spy’s secret stash
A Reddit user nicknamed LMBRJACK found a small door in his cellar, behind which was another code-locked door. After cracking it open, he found a small room with soundproofing and lots of weird stuff: envelopes with inscriptions in different languages, jewelry, banknotes, and a load of strange videotapes. The owner of the house decided to give it all up to the police.
4. The first issue of a comic book
David Gonzalez, a construction worker, was taking down the walls of a house he had just bought in Minnesota when he stumbled upon a stash of papers inside one of them. Among the papers was a rare comic book dated 1938: it was a limited edition that featured Superman for the first time. The book was later auctioned off at $175,000.
3. A green suitcase
A couple bought a house from the 1940s in Ohio and decided to clean the place up. While doing that, they found a small green lunch box in the cellar ceiling. Inside, there was a newspaper dated March 25, 1951, and 3 wraps of paper, each containing a pack of US dollars, totaling $23,000. But that wasn’t it yet.
A week after, the man continued with the renovation and found another box with money inside. The overall amount was $45,000 in old and rare banknotes.
2. A Judgment Day stash
An Imgur user told his story about finding a secret room. 2 weeks after buying a new home, he was cleaning up his cellar and stumbled upon several layers of plywood.
Behind it, there was a breach in the wall where he found lots of ammo, change, and tools, though no guns. Other users thought it had been the stash of a person who awaited the end of days and believed that bullets would become the new currency.
1. A chamber of wonders
A journalist couple, Giuseppe Cadili and Valeria Giarusso, bought an old apartment in Palermo, Italy. During the renovation, they noticed something blue beneath the stucco in one of the rooms. Further investigation showed silver and golden thread inscriptions in Arabic. In the end, it turned out the whole room was covered in them.
Experts said it had been a "chamber of wonders," where magic rituals were performed in the 19th century. Scientists say it’s a unique place because such chambers were a rarity even in their own time.