When it comes to valuing treasure that has never been found there’s the obvious problem of not knowing its condition or quantity, or if it even exists. But assuming the most famous lost treasure stories are all true, which ones would provide the biggest payout?
Here’s five of the highest valued treasures that could still be out there:
1) The Nazi Gold Train
Estimated value – £400 to £600 million
During the Nazi occupation of Europe between 1939 and 1945, the Germans stole a huge amount of art, gold, jewellery and basically anything that had value. When they stole these things they returned them to a stronghold for safe keeping.
Towards the end of the war when Germany realised they were losing, they tried to hide or destroy all of their stolen wealth to stop it falling into the hands of their enemies. One such stronghold known to have existed was in the modern day Polish city of Wałbrzych which was used as a major troop garrison for the region and also a holding site for all the valuables taken from the territory.
This stronghold is well known to have existed, as is the gold and other valuables they kept there, but its what happened to it all that’s got people puzzled. The idea of the Nazi gold train is that all these valuables were loaded on a train and taken west through the owl mountain range along the single tracked rail network.
At some point along the way the train was taken into a small tunnel used to hold trains while they passed each other on the single line, and when inside the entrance was blown up, the track removed and all traces of the tunnel smoothed over to hide the train being in there.
The treasure on board the train is thought to be made up mostly of gold, as much as 15 tons of the stuff, but its said to also contain other precious items such as art work and jewelry. There is enough evidence to convince thousands of people to go hunting for it since the end of the war, including the Polish army and various police forces, but to this day no one has found a single trace.
2) The treasure of Lima
Estimated Value – £150 to £300 million
One of the most famous treasure stories out there, the treasure of Lima is supposed to be a huge amount of gold in the form of two life sized statues of the virgin Mary holding a baby Jesus, both said to be made solely from the precious metal. There’s also supposed to be a good amount of jewelry and loose gold coins, in an unknown quantity.
The story goes that after many years of Spanish colonial rule, the population of Peru became tired of being oppressed and rose up against their foreign rulers. Seeing their time as the rulers of south America was over, the Spanish decided to get out of the country, the only problem was the massive rebellion that was forcing them out faster than planned.
The seat of power for the country was the capital city of Lima were the Spanish appointed governor ruled from, and was also the place they kept all of the regions wealth. When the rebels began gaining more ground faster than thought, the governor decided to try and save the treasure by loading it onto the only ship that was available at the time, a private vessel captained by William Thompson.
The governor loaded the treasure on his ship along with several priests and a small unit of soldiers. The idea was to send the gold to Mexico where it could be kept safe in Spanish territories, but it never made it there. Thompson’s crew ambushed the Spanish at some point during the voyage and killed them all, dumping the bodies overboard.
They then headed to coco island, a small piece of land just over 300 miles off the coast and buried the treasure there, hoping to come back for it later when the Spanish had been kicked out and were no longer looking for them. After being captured upon their return to land, Thompson’s crew were all killed but him and his first mate were taken back to the island to show the Spanish where the treasure was. They both managed to escape and were never seen again, and neither was the treasure.
3)The Honjō Masamune Sword
Estimated Value – Priceless
Masamune was a sword-smith who lived between 1264 and 1343, and he is considered the best samurai sword maker there ever was. He only made a few swords in his life, but the ones he made are the strongest and finest blades in the world, highly prized and held by the highest ranking members of Japanese society.
The Honjō Masamune Sword is the only sword that he is known to have made that isn’t accounted for, and its value is technically classed as priceless. An auction for this sword would easily attract the worlds richest people and would most likely go for a stupid amount of money, with a 9 figure starting bid being entirely realistic.
4) The Copper Scrolls
Estimate value – At least 1 billion GBP
The funny thing about this treasure is that it actually tells people where the treasure is, to an extent at least. The copper scrolls were found as part of the dead sea scrolls and was originally rolled into a tube with the writing on the inside.
The story goes that when the Israelites were being attacked by the Romans, they hid their wealth before they came and left clues for where it was. The problem is that these clues require local knowledge of the land at the time the scrolls were made, which was the 1st century Ad. They include instructions such as “under the rock stairs near the salt pits” and references to other such landmarks that have long since vanished.
One of the treasure locations the scroll mentions is said to contain around 200 tons of gold, which would be worth close to 8 billion GBP in today’s money. Since no one has found any of the treasure yet it seems likely most of it is still up for grabs, all you need is an in-depth understanding of an ancient Hebrew dialect and knowledge of the landscape 2000 years ago and its yours.
5) The Ark of the Covenant
Estimate Value – Priceless
This is one of those treasures that only exist if you believe in the religious stories that accompany it, but it seems that over the years enough people have gone looking for it to make the ark one of the most sought after treasures.
The Ark is a wooden chest covered in fancy gold works that contains the stone tablets that have the ten commandments written on them. The chance that the ark existed in the first place is actually quite high, but whether it held such holy artifacts is debatable.
The ark has been one of the most famous religious artifacts within the Jewish religion, and was said to have been carried with them for the entire 40 years they travelled through the deserts. Its mentioned several times within their texts but the last mention of its location comes from 597 BC in the city of Jerusalem.
The city was attacked by the Babylonians but the Jewish forces managed to escape just before they arrived, leaving the ark and all their belongings in the city. When the Babylonians left the city the ark was gone and hasn’t been seen or mentioned since. If if does indeed exist, or at least the stone tablets do, you could pretty much just walk up to the Israeli government or the Vatican and ask for any amount you want, unless you mysteriously vanished shortly after finding them.
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