Sunday, December 5th, 2021
Jewels found on Mont Blanc
Mountaineer gets half a treasure trove of gems
In the middle of the last century, two passenger planes from India crashed into Mont Blanc. Decades later, a young mountaineer discovers a box with emeralds, sapphires and rubies. Now the honest finder gets half of the jewel treasure.
Eight years after valuable gemstones were found on a Mont Blanc glacier, the stones were shared between the finder and the local authorities. “This week the stones were divided into two equal parts with a value of around 150,000 euros each,” said the mayor of Chamonix, Eric Fournier. He was “very happy” that the case had now come to an end. The city now wants to display the stones in a museum.
Fournier praised the honesty of the young climber who reported his find to the police eight years ago. The gemstones are emeralds, sapphires and rubies, which are believed to have landed on the glacier when an Indian plane crashed more than half a century ago. The young French noticed a metal box in 2013 on the Bossons glacier, which is more than 4,300 meters above the town of Chamonix. The gemstones were packed in small bags labeled “Made in India”.
Two Indian passenger planes crashed into the 4810 meter high Mont Blanc in 1950 and 1966. 58 people were killed in the first crash, 117 in the second. Nobody survived the crashes. Since then, aircraft parts, suitcases and human remains have been found there time and again. After the gemstones had been found, the French authorities first contacted the relevant authorities in India in order to locate the rightful owners of the heirs or their heirs. The jewels could only be divided up after the statutory period for the search for heirs had expired.