Renovating old buildings and homes can be lucrative business, but in some cases the real treasure is not on the invoice, it's what you find behind the walls you tear down. From cash to guns to suits of armor, here are some stories of treasure unearthed during renovations:
Medici Treasure
The most valuable treasure in this story turned up when workers were renovating an old house in Austria. As you can imagine, a country with such deep history is likely to have all sorts of interesting stuff hidden behind the walls, and this house didn't disappoint: As workers broke through a hidden door that had been bolted shut since long before the current owners moved in, they discovered the torso of a suit of armor and an ancient sculpture. Such things are easily faked, so the homeowners brought them to an expert. The examination revealed that they were authentic treasures that evidently originally had belonged to 15th century Italian statesman Lorenzo Medici. No clue how Lorenzo's stuff got behind the wall of this family house in Austria, but the owners auctioned the items off for 8.8 million Euros, which equals more than $12 million!
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| 15th Century Suit of Armor |
Money, Money, Money!
Sure, finding a $12 million suit of armor was cool, but nothing beats finding cold, hard cash stashed in the walls. Bob Kitts, a contractor in Cleveland, was gutting a bathroom in a client's home when he discovered a box nestled between the studs under the medicine cabinet. He pulled it out, popped it open, and couldn't believe his eyes: over $25,000 in 1920s currency! "I almost passed out, it was the ultimate contractor fantasy," Kitts told the Associated Press. The owner rushed home and together they found another box in the bathroom with $100,000, and two more boxes with various valuables. Of course, money does strange things to people: Now Kitts and the homeowner, who was a high school classmate, are arguing about how to split up the dough. In the end the lawyers might be the biggest winners from this treasure hunt!
Kilroy Was Here
Not all behind-the-walls treasure is worth a lot of money, but that doesn't mean it's not amazingly valuable. When workers were peeling old paint off the walls of Morgan Chapel in Bunker Hill, West Virginia, they noticed scribbled writing on the walls. As the old paint flaked off they read a few of the hand-written messages until it hit them: These were messages left by Civil War soldiers who had probably used the old church as a hospital or barracks! The soldiers, both Union and Confederate, covered the walls of the church as high as they could reach. Among the messages: "I should not have written on the walls of the house of God. I would not have done so if it had not already been marked up." Another wrote, "It's not our rebellion," and a third comment read, "Down with traitors, treason and copperheads." The church, built in 1740, was already considered historic, but now its historic value is unquestioned. The West Virginia Episcopal Diocese, which owns the church, is considering how to best preserve the writings.
Kaboom!
Finally, some "treasure" you probably would rather not find when renovating. Workers renovating a house in Dublin, Ireland were cheerfully smashing old walls when something unexpected appeared: A stash of hand grenades! They were old and corroded, and experts suspect they were remains of the personal arsenal of a fighter in Ireland's War of Independence, which ended in 1921 and freed most of Ireland from British rule. You'd think 90-year-old grenades wouldn't be much to worry about, but the neighborhood was evacuated and an army bomb disposal unit was called in to handle the munitions. You can bet the remodelers on that job are glad they didn't swing the sledge hammer one more time!
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