The surprise haul came to light on Aug. 11 during renovation work on a building in the east Flemish town of Dendermonde.

Police said workers alerted them after discovering "a large quantity of gold" – publishing photographs of around 50 gold bars and piles of gold coins on their Facebook page.

Belgian news outlets reported that bars and coins worth an estimated €9 million were found bricked into the cellar walls during the renovation of a house belonging to a local charity, CAW East-Flanders.

Numbered gold bars are discovered by a group of workers on Aug. 11, 2026 in Belgium. Photo courtesy of Dendermonde Local Police

One worker interviewed by Belgian news outlet VRT said the crew’s "first reaction was actually disbelief, amazement".

"We stumbled across it while carrying out groundwork to lay a pipe for the sewerage system," said the man identified only as Kobe. "We certainly hadn’t expected to find gold."

Police said the gold was "inventoried and secured as quickly as possible in a high-security vault belonging to the federal government services".

"Apparently, several treasure hunters would like to pay another visit to the site," read a Facebook post by the police department – which changed its profile picture to a gold coin in the light of the find.

"A golden piece of advice: it is truly pointless," they said, cautioning the curious to stay away from the fenced-off construction site.

It was not clear who was considered the legal owner of the trove – and if anyone would get to keep it.

"Let us hope that this treasure ends up in the right hands," said the police post.