SYDNEY, Dec. 17 (UPI) — The New South Wales government donated a 23-pound gold nugget to the Australian Museum’s Westpac Long Gallery after having been carelessly stored in a Wells Fargo box.
The Maitland Bar gold nugget, valued at $3.7 million, was stored in a box at the Australian Treasury office that public employees unknowingly used for games of cricket.
“Someone studiously decided they’d place it in a box,” New South Wales Premier Mike Baird told ABC Australia. “The problem was they forgot to tell anyone and that box became used for hallway cricket.”
The nugget, believed to be one of the purest ever unearthed, was discovered in 1887 and was sent around the world as a sign of Australia’s wealth before being entrusted to the countries Treasury department.
It was then left in a box and forgotten after World War I until it was inquired about in an audit.
“It wasn’t until around 1956 when an internal audit by the department said ‘Well we gave this nugget to the safe keeping of the office of treasury, where is it?’” said New South Wales Minister for Industry, Resources and Energy Anthony Roberts. “Then a bookkeeper remembered that he had seen this box that had Wells Fargo written on it.”
The box was then opened with a chisel revealing the gold nugget much to the surprise of the Treasury workers.
“My good friends in Treasury – I love them dearly, but that was not their finest moment,” Baird said. “I have, for the record, asked Treasury to open every box they can find.”
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