Treasure Iceland: Long-Lost Nazi Gold Found in Shipwreck Near Nordic Country

A group of divers from UK-based Advanced Marine Services discovered a chest inside a WWII shipwreck where it laid untouched for almost 78 years. According to Metro, the chest could contain up to four tons of valuable metal, believed to be gold from South American banks. It could be worth up to £100 million (US $130.8 million). 

The SS Minden, a German cargo ship, headed to Germany when it was allegedly noticed by the British Navy; therefore Nazi officials ordered in September 1939 to sink the SS Minden some 190 kilometers southeast of Iceland.

Advanced Marine Services applied to Iceland's government for permission to open the chest. The Icelandic officials will decide on who owns the shipwreck in the Atlantic.

Treasure hunters and researchers have been chasing missing Nazi gold for decades. There is a widespread legend about three Nazi German-era gold-laden trains, which were buried in secret underground tunnels built by the Nazis in early 1945. The trains have never been found, but according to rumors, they contain 300 tons of gold, weapons, artwork and jewelry.

One of the so-called Nazi gold trains is believed to have been dispatched by the Nazis from the formerly German city of Breslau (now called Wroclaw and part of Poland) as the Soviet Red Army made its final march toward Berlin. However, the train vanished somewhere in the mountains near the present-day border between Poland and the Czech Republic and has never been found despite some evidence of its existence being revealed.

Another long-standing historical mystery — the whereabouts of Russia's mythical Amber Room, which was plundered during World War II — hasn't been resolved either. The chamber decorated in amber panels backed with gold leaf and mirrors was originally built in the 18th century for the Catherine Palace of Tsarskoye Selo near Saint Petersburg and was lost during World War II after being looted by Nazi German forces.

There are at least 15 theories regarding its location, with experts suggesting that the Amber Room may be hidden somewhere in Russia's Kaliningrad region, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, and even at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. None of these have ever been confirmed. The Amber Room that is currently available on display in the Catherine Palace is, in fact, a reconstruction, which was only completed in 2003.