£270m of treasure kept in derelict Spanish house

For a man with family treasures worth a fortune, Jaume Grau-Pla was somewhat cavalier about security. His 12th-century relics and jewels are worth hundreds of millions of pounds, a dazzling collection that others might have locked away or consigned to a bank vault complete with an expensive insurance policy.

Grau-Pla had an altogether more homespun solution: he stuck all the pieces in a derelict mansion in the Catalan interior and guessed that thieves would never suspect anything of any value was there. He guessed wrong.

It has emerged that treasures worth €300m (£270m) had been stolen from the country house. Fortunately for the wealthy aristocrat, most of the booty was recovered. Two of the three suspected thieves were arrested.



"I keep the house run-down on purpose as a way to camouflage the high-value collection I keep inside," Grau-Pla said. "Only those who had been inside the house knew what was kept there. Many of the things are invaluable. No amount of money could buy them."

Grau-Pla only realised that the collection had gone when he visited one weekend and found the glass cases empty.

Police who detained the thieves were themselves stunned by the tiaras, necklaces, rings and other jewellery that they discovered. They said they were happy to believe the aristocrat's own €300m valuation of the collection.