It just goes to show. Even museum staff get tempted in stealing treasure.
It's highly likely the vast majority of history changing treasure finds are never reported. And those that are reported are often pillaged within the first hundred years or sooner. There's just too much chaos in the world to keep historic treasure secure and out of the hands of thieves or government melting pots indefinitely. Even seemingly mundane non-precious historic objects are scrapped every day -- for pennies, eventhough they're worth more as historic artifacts. Just remember all the WWII german helmets turned into pots and pans.
Yep, now's a good time to hang out at the coin shop and pay 10-20 percent over spot to the dealer for historic silver or gold objects that'll otherwise be sent to the refinery. I recall around 15 years ago one of the Russian Imperial Easter Eggs was found in this manner. The guy paid around $500 for it in scrap and then sold it at auction for 33 million. https://www.cnn.com/style/article/faberge-third-imperial-egg
The competition is heating up on the auction sites. Seeing more gold jewelry being sold off now.
A deceased good friend, John, was a former bank president and bank examiner. He hunted silver when he was at different banks back in the good days. He had 33,000 in silver quarters put back and hid in an old closet out of sight and mind, back in pin ball days. His son found them, He and his friends had a good old time. Spent them all! Years after he first told me the story he told me they were all seated!
