Britain’s biggest ever gold nugget discovered near treasure-laden shipwreck in Wales

Vincent Thurkettle discovered a 3oz (97g) nugget off the coast of Anglesey in 2012. The gold prospector kept his find a secret for four years so he could continue to search the area for gold - only going public once he was sure there was no more. The nugget is believed to be part of a £120million haul that went down with the Royal Charter when it was shipwrecked during a hurricane in 1859.

The Royal Charter was a steam clipper which was wrecked off the beach of Porth Alerth in Dulas Bay on the north-east coast of Anglesey on 26 October 1859. About 450 lives were lost. The Royal Charter was returning to Liverpool from Melbourne. Her complement included many gold miners, some who had struck it rich at the diggings in Australia and were carrying large sums of gold. A consignment of gold was also being carried as cargo.

The Royal Charter broke up on these rocks near Moelfre

The wreck was extensively salvaged by Victorians shortly after the disaster. The remains of Royal Charter lie close inshore in less than 5 metres of water as a series of iron bulkheads, plates and ribs which become covered and uncovered by the shifting sands from year to year. Gold sovereigns, pistols, spectacles and other personal items have been found by scuba divers over the years

Britain's second biggest nugget was the Carnon Nugget found in Cornwall in 1808 and weighing 2.08oz (59g). The Rutherford Nugget, which was found in Scotland in 1869, comes in third at 2.04oz (57.9g).

Mystery of the missing Gods

A tumbled ruin: the Brihadeeswara temple. A stone warrior guards the doorway, half-sunk in sand. Hundreds of bats whirl overhead, shrieking at the intrusion. Exposed beams, textured by time and mold, add to the musty smell in the air. Cobwebs on prayer lamps enhance the sense of abandonment. The altar is stripped bare, like a frame without a picture: It's a temple without a god. The 1,000-year-old guardian of the temple, Shiva Nataraja, is missing from his abode.

The Lord of Cosmic Dance has travelled 9,000 km to the National Gallery of Art in Canberra, Australia. How did he get there? Ask Subhash Kapoor, 65, a New Delhi-born and New York-based antiquity dealer, considered an art connoisseur as well as one of the biggest idol smugglers in the world. He sold the Nataraja for $5.1m 2008. Kapoor is suspected of stealing over 150 idols worth $100 million from India. "Art and antiquity theft is one of the most lucrative crimes," says IPS officer Prateep V. Philip, director general, EOW, in Chennai. "It outbids drug trafficking, arms dealing, and money laundering." The odds of recovering stolen treasures are abysmal, one in ten. But in this case, authorities managed to trace the idol

Six gods were identified in museums and private collections across the world: Canberra, New South Wales, Chicago, Ohio to Singapore. The Australian government has ordered NGA to remove the Nataraja from display.

American and Indian investigators have compiled an enormous dossier on Kapoor. Much of the material has been the product of an investigation called Operation Hidden Idol. American authorities say Kapoor was, in volume and value, the largest antiquities smuggler in American history.

Their best evidence is an almost unimaginable 2,622 items, worth $107.6 million that was confiscated from storerooms in Manhattan and Queens, and virtually all of it contraband from India. American museums have begun returning possibly stolen artifacts to India. Museums from Hawaii to Massachusetts have handed over items bought from Kapoor’s defunct business, Art of the Past, which was on Madison Avenue in Manhattan. Another 15 American museums have been identified as holding items obtained from Kapoor

February 5, 2016. The special court in Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu falls silent. No one answers to “Subhash Chandra Kapoor”, the court officer looks at the prosecutors and police officers. They explain that he is being brought from the Puzhal prison in Chennai, his home since 2012. The court is adjourned. In a while, a police van enters. Policemen escort a balding, fair man in his 60s, whose face is covered with a blue cotton towel. Though this was his first visit in handcuffs to Kumbakonam, Kapoor has known the temple town closely for many years. This was, after all, a major source for his colossal antique business. On March 11, US Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) seized two more stolen Indian sculptures, dating back to the 8th and 10th centuries from auction house Christie's in New York. Though the Homeland Security Investigations seized 2,622 objects from his warehouse, only 18 idols have been mentioned in the two cases registered by the Tamil Nadu police. Every day, Kapoor has bread, a cup of rice and five pieces of fried fish.

See ----->http://psjfactoids.blogspot.ca/2016/04/ancient-artifacts-seized-in-operation.html

The Door to Hell

In the middle of the Karakum Desert, Turkmenistan, the "Door to Hell" can be found. In 1971, Soviet geologists accidentally discovered a cave filled with natural gas when the ground beneath their oil rig collapsed. The geologists decided to light the gas on fire and burn it away. That large crater, 70 metres in diameter, has been burning ever since.