Oceanic Research & Recovery, Inc.

For a man with family treasures worth a fortune, Jaume Grau-Pla was somewhat cavalier about security. His 12th-century relics and jewels are worth hundreds of millions of pounds, a dazzling collection that others might have locked away or consigned to a bank vault complete with an expensive insurance policy. (more…)

The Cuerdale Hoard is the greatest Viking silver treasure trove ever found, outside Russia, far exceeding in scale and range any hoard found in the Scandinavian homelands or in the western areas of Viking settlement. Containing around 8,600 items of silver coins and bullion when found, and weighing some 40kg, it is an astonishing assemblage, as impressive even in its slightly depleted form today as it must have been when it was first put together in the early tenth century. (more…)

The Bactrian Treasure (also known as the Bactrian Gold or Bactrian Hoard) is a treasure cache that lay under the “Hill of Gold” (also known as the “Golden Hill”, or Tillia tepe) in Afghanistan for 2,000 years untilSoviet archeologists exposed it shortly before the 1979 invasion. The hoard then went missing during subsequent wars in Afghanistan, until it was “rediscovered” and first brought to public attention again in 2003. (more…)

In 1912, a small boy was exploring the village of Mala Pereshchepina, which is 13 km from Poltava, Ukraine, when he fell into the grave of Kuvrat, the founder of Great Bulgaria and father of Asparuh, the first Bulgarian Emperor.  The boy discovered a vast treasure containing more than 800 items. (more…)

In 1989, Donald Scheer, a Philadelphia financial analyst, purchased a painting in an Adamstown, PA flea market. He didn’t particularly like the painting, but bought the item for the old frame. It cost him $4. When taking the painting out of the frame it subsequently fell apart, but he noticed a peace of paper lurking within. It was an old copy of the United States Declaration of Independence.  He had it appraised and to his surprise it was an original copy of the  Declaration of Independence that was printed by John Dunlap. (more…)

Środa Śląska is a town in Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland.  On June 8, 1985, construction workers discovered gold and silver coins during demolition of an old building. The authorities secured the original find of 3,000 Prague groschen. Three years later during a demolition in the vicinity of the first discovery, an even bigger find was reported.  Most of the treasure was looted and disappeared before it could be taken by the authorities, although many important and valuable historic artifacts were found. (more…)