Can You Dig It? Real-Life Treasure Hunt Books Like THE CURSE OF OAK ISLAND

The 1922 discovery of King Tut’s tomb was a watershed moment for treasure hunting. But this amazing discovery did not happen overnight or out of the blue: it was the culmination of over a century of European obsession and plunder. A World Beneath the Sands recounts their most notable expeditions and finds/robberies.

El Dorado, the famed (and nonexistent — sorry!) city of gold supposedly hidden in the South American jungle, has fascinated treasure hunters for centuries. This early account by historian Pedro Simón follows two Spanish conquistadors as they travel to Peru and fail spectacularly in their gold-seeking mission.

Pirate booty is probably the first thing you think of when you hear the phrase “lost treasure.” Despite the Golden Age of Piracy lasting a maximum of eighty years (or even as little as ten), pirates continue to play an outsized role in pop culture. Pirate Hunters tells the tale of two men who risk it all to reconstruct an obscure pirate’s life and locate his sunken ship.

Catherine the Great, empress of Russia, loved art. Hey, who can blame her? Art is neat. But when a ship carrying her latest acquisitions went down in the Baltic Sea, the priceless paintings on board were thought lost forever. The Tsarina’s Lost Treasure relates both the history of that artwork and the efforts to recover it.

When the SS Central America went down in 1857, it was carrying approximately All Of The Gold. Its location might still be lost if not for the efforts of one really determined guy from Ohio. Originally published in 1998, a new edition of Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea is due out in July 2021.

The mountains of New Mexico supposedly harbor one of the greatest treasures known to man. Think Scrooge McDuck’s vault, but in a cave. The man who claimed to have found it was later murdered, and the U.S. Army may or may not have absconded with it decades ago. Where did this treasure come from, and what really happened to it? No one knows, but learning its bizarre story is reward enough (though the money would be cool too).

The hunt for Forrest Fenn’s Rocky Mountain treasure apparently ended in June 2020. However, there is still plenty to say about wealthy (and very probably unscrupulous) art dealer Fenn’s reasons for starting the hunt, and why humans take such complete leave of our senses at the slightest possibility of finding treasure.

How do museums acquire the artifacts in their exhibits? All too often, the answer is “not legally.” Journalist Peter Watson started by investigating the case of ancient Italian vases found in a smuggler’s swimming pool; he ended up tracking countless stolen treasures to some of Europe and America’s most prestigious museums.

Heinrich Schliemann made a name for himself by claiming he discovered Homer’s Troy (of “Trojan horse” fame). Whether he actually did that is up for debate. What is not up for debate is the fact that he straight-up stole a bunch of stuff from the site, which is now in the hands of Moscow’s Pushkin Museum. And they’re not sharing.

Traditionally, museums have held Indigenous cultures and opinions in low regard, taking whatever artifacts they wanted and depicting Native Americans in harmful ways. Decolonizing Museums explores how that has changed in recent years, as museums begin to consult Indigenous communities about their exhibits and Indigenous groups open museums of their own.

British colonial rule over Nigeria ended in 1960, but the British Museum still claims ownership of countless treasures stolen from there and other former colonies. Those treasures include hundreds of the Benin Bronzes, an expansive collection of metal sculptures and reliefs. Museum curator Hicks explains how British colonialists took the sculptures, how Britain continues to profit off the thefts, and how the damage they caused will never heal until they return what their ancestors took.

It’s impossible to talk about lost treasures without mentioning the horrific, irreparable damage inflicted by the Third Reich. This book relates the stories of fifteen Jewish art collectors whose works were stolen by the Nazis. Some were killed in concentration camps, others were able to recover their paintings, and still others remain locked in battles with museums and collectors who believe the art belongs to them.

Is treasure hunting legal? More importantly, is it ethical? What would (and should) you do if you find a lost treasure? Through interviews and personal stories, Finders Keepers reveals the complex, morally fraught decisions archaeologists and treasure hunters make on a daily basis, and why “doing the right thing” isn’t as simple as Harrison Ford makes it look.

Wittman had the job we all wish we could have: traveling the world and recovering all kinds of lost treasures, from stolen paintings to locks of an American president’s hair. In Priceless, he relates his most daring, most exciting, and most amusing adventures.

If you’re like me, you grew up thinking that the Titanic — both the story of its loss and its eventual rediscovery — was the coolest thing ever. Needless to say, a lot of risk and effort go into making such discoveries. Mearns, a marine geologist who made a career out of searching for shipwrecks, takes readers behind the scenes and beneath the seas to show us landlubbers what it’s really like.