One of the largest amber nuggets in the world known to date, valued at one million euros, has been in the home of an elderly woman in Romania for decades, who thought it was a stone. The woman, who found the 3.5-kilogram piece in a stream bed in Romania, Colti, a village located in the southeast of the Eastern European countryused it as a simple doorstop without anyone realizing its value, not even some jewel thieves who broke into his home, revealed the Romanian media, information that has been confirmed to EL PAÍS Daniel Costache, director of the Buzau Provincial Museum, where the object is currently located.
The extraordinary fossil resin caught the eye of a relative of the homeowner, who died two years after the fall of the communist dictatorship in 1989. Having inherited what he considered a rock, he examined the piece of amber more closely and deduced that it could be a semi-precious stone of great value. And he was right. He sold the unique find to the Romanian state, which promptly classified the piece as a national treasure.
The Romanian authorities left the nugget in the hands of specialists from Museum of the History of Krakow (Poland)which has a section dedicated to the study of semi-precious stones. Polish experts immediately confirmed the authenticity of the amber and estimated that it could be between 38.5 and 70 million years old. “Its discovery represents a great significance both at a scientific level and at a museum level,” explains Costache, who believes that its value is incalculable. The expert assures that it is one of the largest pieces in the world and the largest of its kind.
Members of the owner’s family even went so far as to say that the old lady was the victim of a robbery in which only a few pieces of gold jewellery of little value were stolen from her and the amber piece was completely ignored. “In their frantic search for valuables, they overlooked the real treasure that the house held before their eyes,” they said.
Romania is among the countries in the world that have important deposits of amber, being Buzau County is one of the areas where this semi-precious stone is found in abundance.. Because of the particularities of the country’s deposits, geologist Oscar Helm called them “rumanit”, commonly known as “Buzau amber”, says the World Record Academy, the world’s most important organization that certifies records.
The region is home to a nature reserve where various amber nuggets have been discovered, which are of considerable value both in terms of quality and due to the more than 160 shades of predominantly dark colours, from red to black. Some of them contain a rich content of fossil remains of arachnids, beetles, flies, crustaceans, reptiles, bird feathers and animal hair, among others. In addition, the protected area contains the old Stramba amber mine, known as one of the most productive during the first half of the 21st century, but which was stopped by the communist regime as it was considered unprofitable.
You can follow SUBJECT in Facebook, X and Instagramor sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.
#elderly #Romanian #woman #millioneuro #piece #amber #doorstop #decades
