More than three years after two treasure hunters claimed to have found a Nazi train laden with gold and gems in the Polish city of Walbrzych, one of the men looking for it has unearthed another kind of treasure: two dozen priceless Renaissance portraits.
Piotr Koper, who spent years hunting for the elusive train rumoured to be laden with gold and gems, has found two dozen priceless Renaissance portraitsPiotr Koper made the completely accidental discovery while helping renovate a baroque dome in a palace located in the village of Struga, near the city of Wroclaw, local outlet The First News reported.
Since one of the portraits depicts Ferdinand I Habsburg, ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1558 till 1564, the renovators deduced that the paintings are at least 500 years old.
The owner of the palace where the portraits were found believes that there may be many other valuable objects to discover there.
Koper's earlier obsession with the Nazi Gold Train made international headlines between 2015 and 2016.
According to tales that have circulated since the end of World War II, the Nazis hid a train containing up to 300 tons of gold, as well as diamonds and firearms.
A number of trains are believed to have been used by the Nazis in the 1940s to transport goods stolen from people in Eastern Europe back to Berlin. While some might have made it to the German capital, others are said to have been left behind by Soviet troops, as they advanced in 1945.