CNN
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After the owner died, the vast collection of historic gold coins recovered from the walls of a French home were sold at auction for millions of euros.
Auction House Beaussant Lefèvreand Associates told CNN on Thursday that all coins were sold in Paris this week, winning more than 3 million euros ($3.48 million) in total.
According to the Beaussant Lefèvreand Associates, the coin was collected in 2024 by Paul Narce, who lived in a small village in southwestern France until his death.
“Nars, who lived a modest life and never saw much of the world, spent all his money on his collection,” Coin expert Thierry Percy said in a statement previewing the sale.
Over the years, he “constructed an extraordinary collection of gold coins, both extraordinary things with over 1,000 numbers and the rare ones that are included,” Parsy said.
According to Parsy, many of the coins go back centuries.
Among them are ancient coins from the Kingdom of Macedonia between 336-323 BC, and an almost complete set of coins used during the reigns of Kings of France, Louis XIV, Louis XIV and Louis XIV.
Narse had no direct descendants, and only a few knew about his hobbies.
But no one knew where he had his collection. “It could have been undiscovered forever,” Parsy said.
The notary was eventually found a coin in a small space on the wall, hiding behind a painting in the store room.
In addition to the carefully labeled collection, the notary also found 10 packages. Each contains 172 gold 20 francoins, the equivalent of gold ingots.
The final sale was well above the pre-auction estimate of 2 million euros ($2.43 million).