Jamie Oliver strikes gold in new restaurant basement

A valuable and rather unusual haul of treasure was found in the basement of well known TV chef Jamie Oliver's new restaurant in Manchester, England. The building on historic King Street was previously a bank, and during refurbishing safety deposit boxes, including some nearly 80 years old, were found. Various unclaimed treasures were uncovered, including original master recordings by Joy Division and New Order. Also in the trove were jewelery, gold and reportedly, a gun. Reports of the total value of the find vary between GBP 1 and 1.1 million ( around EUR 1.2 million ).

Previous tenants, the HSBC bank, said they were not allowed to remove the safety deposit boxes as the building is protected by laws affecting historic buildings and monuments. Owners claimed most of the contents of the vault, which were moved, and it appears that the treasure trove is a collection of unclaimed items. Surviving members of the two bands are yet to comment on the master tapes and the UK media reports that the whole lot has been handed over to the UK treasury. Liam Lever, liam@romania-insider.com