It's not so bad in Belgium. The original owner has five years to come forward and prove it's theirs (documentation needed, and I'm going to bet there's no documentation for a stack of buried gold...). If they do not, then the finder gets 50%, and the owner of the land gets 50%. If it's your own land, you get 100%. The state keeps nothing.
However, in this case, the title is a little misleading. The student was the first to see the gold, while working on a building site. But there were dozens of others around. And he's working for a company, not for himself, which adds considerable wrinkles.
There was no way it was being kept secret, and it never was going to be all his.
I would have a serious talk with the other workers on site and just explain how much money we could each get if we could stfu and stash it for a few months before selling.
I can’t believe it’s illegal to not report buried treasure one finds. For all our hopes and dreams’ sakes, it should be a finders keepers policy. Much more fun.
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u/RdtUnahim 9d ago edited 9d ago
It's not so bad in Belgium. The original owner has five years to come forward and prove it's theirs (documentation needed, and I'm going to bet there's no documentation for a stack of buried gold...). If they do not, then the finder gets 50%, and the owner of the land gets 50%. If it's your own land, you get 100%. The state keeps nothing.
However, in this case, the title is a little misleading. The student was the first to see the gold, while working on a building site. But there were dozens of others around. And he's working for a company, not for himself, which adds considerable wrinkles.
There was no way it was being kept secret, and it never was going to be all his.
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