The Golden Buddha
Fascinating - covered in plaster for over 200 yrs., sat under a tin roof almost forgotten, then when being transported a bit of plaster is knocked off and - Hey, that's gold under there - and a lot of it.
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"At US$1,400 per troy ounce,(it weighs 5.5 tons) the gold in the statue (18 karat) is estimated to be worth 250 million dollars.[8] The body of the statue is 40% pure, the volume from the chin to the forehead is 80% pure, and the hair and the topknot, weighing 45 kg, are 99% pure gold"
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Golden_Buddha_%28statue%29#Discovery_of_the_gold_statue
Makes you wonder (1) How rich a country was to make such a thing? (2) What were the circumstances in its being plastered over?
Definite story in there somewhere.