Two brothers in France strike it rich whilst building a tent in their garden during lockdown near Paris

FRENCH brothers struck gold whilst playing in their back garden during lockdown. The boy’s parents had left Paris when France imposed a lockdown and moved to a family home in the town of Vendôme, south-west of the capital.
The youngsters, both aged about 10, had asked to build a makeshift hut in the garden using branches and leaves and their father, told them that they could use their late grandmother’s sheets as a canopy.

When they went to collect the sheets “two fairly heavy objects” fell out, said Philippe Rouillac, a local auctioneer, “They didn’t pay attention to them and put them back.”
But the boys soon told their father about the discovery. He asked them to go and get them and initially believed they were knife holders that belonged to the grandmother.
He contacted Mr Rouillac’s company to double-check and, after sending a few photographs, he was told the good news. The objects were not knife holders, but two gold bars weighing 1kg each. Both bars are now listed on the auctioneer’s website with an estimated value of €40,000 apiece.
It turned out that the bars were purchased by the grandmother in 1967 and even come with a proof of purchase. Moreover, the price of gold has increased due to the coronavirus pandemic. “We are going to wait for the price of gold to rise a little more,” Mr Rouillac said. “They could get at least €100,000.”