WHAT'S CONSIDERED THE LARGEST UNDISCOVERED TREASURE?

A full-scale platinum-skinned model of the Hindenburg stuffed with Nazi plunder, biblical artefacts, crates of alien space-propulsion gear lost at sea when the life-size replica of the Titanic transporting it tore its solid-gold hull on a gigantic,floating diamond somewhere close to Atlantis. Well, that or an honest politician.

Actually, there’s some pretty tempting stuff still out there, ranging from priceless Indiana Jones-grade relics to missing art (seven Fabergé eggs, for instance, worth perhaps R300 million apiece) to lost treasure ships laden with unfathomable riches. The Flor de la Mar, an as-yet-unrecovered Portuguese vessel, purportedly went down off the coast of Sumatra carrying “200 coffers of precious stones” and “diamonds from a half-inch to the size of a man’s fist,” which ought to cover the DStv bill for a few months. Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas, wrecked off the Bahamas in 1656, was first found in 1972 and divers have recovered perhaps ten tons of sodden swag since. But that still leaves an estimated 140 tons of missing treasure for the rest of us, assuming we can snorkel our way onto it.

Hidden historical highlights include the tomb of Genghis Khan, thought to be somewhere in Mongolia and to contain immeasurable bounty of both historical and remunerative significance. Further east, there’s the Heirloom Seal of the Realm. In ancient China, prominent families used elaborate seals carved from jade to print their names. The Heirloom Seal was fashioned from a famous piece of jade in 221 BC and eventually became a talisman of sorts, conferring legitimacy upon China’s rulers. So important was the seal that it was once the object of armed conflict between rival kingdoms. Alas, it’s been lost for more than a millennium. Find that, and maybe you can claim all of China for yourself. Can’t hurt to put it in your saved searches on eBay, anyway.

Published in "Popular Mechanics", South Africa, vol. 15, n. 9, April 2017, excerpt p.20. Adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.