227. Depression-Era Cash Buried In Ohio Wall

Location: Ohio, USA
Year Discovered: Unknown
Est. Value: $182,000*
The uncertainty of the Great Depression forced an affluent individual in the USA to bury around $182,000 behind his bathroom wall in an Ohio house. No one knows what happened to the burier, but the cash remained hidden in plain sight for several decades until contractor Bob Kitts was hired to fix the wall.

Depression-Era Cash Buried In Ohio Wall ©StudioLaMagica/stock.adobe.com
The discovery of the treasure halted his job but started a long-drawn-out court battle with the house owner over the treasure’s ownership. Kitts only got a couple thousand bucks, but they were worth the struggle.

228. British Politician’s Bust Propping A Scotland Door Open

Location: Balintore, Easter Ross, Scotland
Year Discovered: Unknown
Est. Value: $1.9 million*
It is not every day that you visit a village in Scotland and end up locating an antique sculpture of a British politician. This 18th-century antique bust of Sir John Gordon, a revered British politician, was found being used for the menial task of propping the door open to a shed.

British Politician’s Bust Propping A Scotland Door Open ©Sina Ettmer/stock.adobe.com
Nobody in the quiet little Scottish village of Balintore, Easter Ross, knew the treasure they held until years later. The sculpture now sits on an elaborate display in the Louvre and is priced at more than $1.9 million (£1.5m).

229. The Hoard Found Through A Metal Detector

Location: Suffolk, England
Year Discovered: 1992
Est. Value: $2.3 million*
A simple farmer living near Hoxne, Suffolk, asked his friend to help him find his lost hammer with a metal detector on a simple day in 1992. But everything simple about this arrangement changed when the duo found something better than the lost hammer: a hoard of spoons, jewels, coins, and statues.

The Hoard Found Through A Metal Detector @Hoxne_Hoard/commons.wikimedia.org
This priceless hoard dates back to the Roman Empire and immediately made the two friends millionaires. The collection was priced at $2.3 million (£1.75 million) and now sits on an elaborate display in the British Museum.

230. Vintage Comics Found In Virginia Closet

Location: Virginia, USA
Year Discovered: 1980s
Est. Value: $3.5 million*
The death of his great aunt landed their ancestral home in Virginia into Michael Rorrer’s lap. He did not expect much when he drove off to clean the house and possibly put it up for sale but ended up stumbling upon his great aunt’s husband’s vintage stack of old comic books.

Vintage Comics Found In Virginia Closet ©RajKa00/Shutterstock
The Archie comics weren’t just any other garbage-worthy stack; half of the collection earned Rorrer a whopping $3.5 million (£2.7m) in a 2012 auction, with the rest also up for sale. Rorrer may not even remember his great aunt’s husband, but he undoubtedly helped make his life.

231. French Gold Buried In Normandy

Location: Normandy, France
Year Discovered: 2016
Est. Value: $4 million*
When a Frenchman inherited his family house in Normandy, he did not expect to find a treasure buried in it. But his life changed when he came across a rather odd-looking tinplate box firmly screwed under a piece of furniture. He opened the box to find gold inside, along with a vintage whisky bottle.

French Gold Buried In Normandy @AFP/scmp.com
But that wasn’t all: the Frenchman discovered some more bars of gold hidden with the whiskey and then some more around different parts of the house. The quite literal treasure hunt ended with him standing atop an elaborate collection of thousands of gold bars and coins weighing more than 220lb. The collection was sold for a whopping €3.5 million ($4m/£3.1m).

232. Classic Cars Treasure Trove in France

Location: France
Year Discovered: 2014
Est. Value: $18.5 million*
Entrepreneur Roger Ballion loved collecting vintage cars until his business went south. Financial obligations left his epic collection dormant in a corner of his farm under rust-infused shelters.

Classic Cars Treasure Trove in France ©Mirko Vitali/stock.adobe.com
No one knows what exactly happened to Ballion, but the discovery of 60 classic, albeit rusting, cars on his French farm in 2014 shocked the world. The collection included a Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spyder that French film star Alain Delon owned beforehand. The Ferrari alone was sold for €16.2 million ($18.5m/£14.3m).

233. The Paintings In The Attic

Location: Long Island, New York
Year Discovered: 2000s
Est. Value: $30 million*
Lawrence Joseph and Thomas Schultz were just an ordinary couple who used their life savings to buy a house in Long Island, New York, and fulfill their dream of building their home together. But the house had something else in store for them, something quite beyond their imagination.

The Paintings In The Attic ©martinfredy/stock.adobe.com
The couple discovered an extensive collection of antique paintings in their attic while cleaning it out, which later came to be known as the work of little-known painter Arthur Pinajian. The exhibition caught the public eye and is now worth $30 million (£23m).

234. Caravaggio’s Hidden Painting

Location: Toulouse, France
Year Discovered: 2014
Est. Value: $137 million*
House owners in Toulouse, France, were regularly repairing their roof when the contractors came across something shocking and priceless. They unearthed a hidden painting on the house’s roof, which experts believe was painted by the Italian master Caravaggio more than 400 years ago.

Caravaggio’s Hidden Painting @Alvin Vassallo/tvmnews.mt
The painting made headlines and created a worldwide sensation. It was put on the market for €120 million ($137m/£106m) and was bought by a mystery buyer.

235. 17th Century Antique Painting In Paris’ Fashion Boutique

Location: Paris, France
Year Discovered: 2000s
Est. Value: Unknown
Builders hired to construct a brand-new fashion boutique in Paris named Oscar de la Renta Paris ended up with a lot more than they had expected. A 10-by-20-foot painting placed in the unlikeliest of spots stopped them in their tracks and made them call on experts.

17th Century Antique Painting In Paris’ Fashion Boutique @Julien Mignot/painting-restoration-paris.bnlib.com
The painting turned out to be a 17th-century masterpiece by the Flemish painter Arnould de Vuez and was probably stacked there to ward off Nazi looters during the Second World War.

236. A Diary From 1941

Location: USA
Year Discovered: 2010s
Est. Value: Unknown
Diaries are priceless; they share our sorrows and joys when nobody else can and are the best of friends when it comes to keeping secrets. But they can also offer insight into the past, and Anne Frank’s famous diary is one such case.

A Diary From 1941 /imgur.com
The owner of this picture recalls the story of his friend who found an abandoned diary in a recycling plant and decided to look it over. The diary was from the year 1941 and was worth a lot more than something belonging to a recycling plant.

237. Ancient Underground City of Derinkuyu

Location: Derinkuyu, Turkiye
Year Discovered: 1960s
Est. Value: Unknown
One of the most baffling archeological discoveries was made by a Turkish man who found the entrance to the oldest underground city in the world while renovating his house. The entrance passageway led to the 18 story underground city that ran as deep as 250 feet in certain places.

Ancient Underground City of Derinkuyu @OKEANOS TRAVEL/getyourguide.com
The origins of this underground city and the reasons for its abandonment are among the biggest mysteries that bewilder humankind.