London: At least one family has struck gold after a German artist buried bullion on a Folkestone beach.
On Thursday the Guardian prompted hundreds of gold diggers to head for the town by breaking the news that conceptual artist Michael Sailstorfer had buried 30 bars of the precious metal, together worth £10,000.
A family from Folkestone dug up one of the bars at around 7pm on Thursday night, the organisers of the project told the Guardian. There have been other rumoured finds, but these have yet to be confirmed.
The lucky family want to remain anonymous.
Claire Doherty, director of the Situations art group which commissioned Sailstorfer for the Folkestone Triennial project, said: “We know for definite that someone did find one.”
“We are just trying to persuade them to send us a photo of it in their hands. But they just want to keep it quiet. The funder of the event knows the family involved. We are not sure whether it is one of the big bars or the smaller ones. Some are worth £250 and others are £500.
“I understand it was a family who found it together.”
At least three other bars are reported to have been found, but these have yet to be confirmed, Doherty said.
“There are rumours of another three finds, via Facebook, but we can’t confirm those at the moment. We are just waiting to find out.”
She added: “We knew that something would be found soon because the bars are not buried very deep and hundreds of people were looking for them yesterday.”
Dozens more gold diggers headed to the beach on Friday where they were confronted by the rising tide. The tide is due to go out at around 4pm.
