It's not every day we get to go on a real-life treasure hunt -- and one with really high stakes, no less.
A German artist has buried 30 bars of 24-carat gold on a beach in Folkestone, in the British county of Kent. The bars are completely up for grabs, and whoever finds them can keep them. Together, their value totals almost $17,000.
It's all to draw attention to the town's local art festival, and we must say our attention is certainly piqued.
Diggers descended on Folkestone's Outer Harbor beach after the news broke on Thursday, shovels and buckets in hand. To find the gold, treasure hunters must work around the beach's finicky tide, which typically goes out around 4 p.m.
The crowd started small, considering the riches at hand -- only about 150 people were reported to show up when the digging commenced. The first gold bar was found by a family around 7 p.m. Thursday and reports say three bars have been found since.
Each bar should be worth about $533 -- and by our count, there are 26 left.
Organizers from the art festival say they hope that as the tide rises and falls with each day of the hunt, diggers will create artworks in the sand that will be continually washed away and re-created.
We say we're booking a ticket to Folkestone!
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A German artist has buried 30 bars of 24-carat gold on a beach in Folkestone, in the British county of Kent. The bars are completely up for grabs, and whoever finds them can keep them. Together, their value totals almost $17,000.
It's all to draw attention to the town's local art festival, and we must say our attention is certainly piqued.
Diggers descended on Folkestone's Outer Harbor beach after the news broke on Thursday, shovels and buckets in hand. To find the gold, treasure hunters must work around the beach's finicky tide, which typically goes out around 4 p.m.
The crowd started small, considering the riches at hand -- only about 150 people were reported to show up when the digging commenced. The first gold bar was found by a family around 7 p.m. Thursday and reports say three bars have been found since.
Each bar should be worth about $533 -- and by our count, there are 26 left.
Organizers from the art festival say they hope that as the tide rises and falls with each day of the hunt, diggers will create artworks in the sand that will be continually washed away and re-created.
We say we're booking a ticket to Folkestone!
BREAKING: a #Folkestone family have struck gold! #folkestonegold #FolkestoneTriennial http://t.co/NZwuXmL4jd pic.twitter.com/l5ocUSq1Dd
— kmfm News (@kmfmnews) August 29, 2014Got your spade out yet? It's low tide, so the best time to dig up some gold at #Folkestone http://t.co/XvA0kITnCu pic.twitter.com/p3ayayeYzG
— KentOnline (@Kent_Online) August 29, 2014