A collection of historical gold coins hidden in the wall of a house in France fetched 3 million euros at auction this week. The recently deceased owner had told almost no one about his special collection.
According to the auction house Beaussant Lefèvre & Associés, the collection consists of more than a thousand pieces, including very rare specimens.
Some coins are more than two thousand years old. Furthermore, the collection contains almost complete series of coins from the France of Louis XIV, Louis XV, and Louis XVI, CNN writes. They were in power from the end of the seventeenth century to the end of the eighteenth century.
The owner, Paul Narce, who died in 2024, had no direct descendants and had told almost no one about his hobby. “He lived a modest life and spent a lot of money on the collection,” coin expert Thierry Parsy told CNN.
A notary who searched the house in a village in southwestern France found the coins in a hidden space in the wall. They were hidden behind a painting. “They could have remained hidden forever,” Parsy says.
The auction house expected the coin collection to fetch a total of around 2 million euros.