Through Thomas martin
Published on
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A real treasure in Paris. This is the discovery made by workers during the demolition of a building in the Rue Mouffetard in 1938: 3,556 gold dated from the reign of Louis XV. We tell you what has become of them.
30 kilos d’or
Those who will walk rue Mouffetard, in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, will be able to have a thought for this incredible story by passing in front of the numbers 51 and 53. On May 24, 1938, Italian diggers working on the demolition of a building discovered a hiding place in a wall, containing many rolls of coins wrapped in pieces of canvas and accompanied by a will written by Louis Nivelle, “Squire, Counselor, Secretary of the King, Audiencier in the Chancellery of the Palace” and destining the loot to his daughter Anne-Louise-Claude Nivelle. She will never see him because Louis Nivelle suddenly dies of a heart attack before having warned her.
The workers pay no attention to their discovery. One of them even brings home some coins that he believes are copper and worthless and gives them to his son to play marbles. One of the intrigued workers still decides to go see the jeweler in his neighborhood in Montreuil to have one of the pieces appraised. When the jeweler tells him that they are in reality Louis XV gold coins, the worker goes to the Montreuil police station.
The police quickly went to the scene and searches were started.
Most of them are Louis then double Louis and demi-Louis. The treasure represents a weight of 30 kilos of gold.
A division of the treasure in three parts
The discovery of the treasure is then legally declared and a judgment of June 2, 1949 divides it into three parts between the discoverers, the city of Paris, current owner of the building and the certified heirs of Anne Nivelle, i.e. 82 people found. Part of the treasure, that enveloped in the wills, is considered as an inheritance (2812 coins) and goes to the heirs, the other loose coins are considered as a find (539 coins) and are shared by half between the city of Paris and the discoverers ( 9 people).
The first sales of shares due to the various beneficiaries of the treasure took place from 1952. Many other sales lasted until 1960. This treasure, the most important discovered in Paris, still regularly contributes to the chronicle of sales. at auction.
The strange Louis Nivelle
Who was Louis Nivelle whose will and loot were found in rue Mouffetard? Death mysteriously around 1757, he led a double life it seems: a good father, good husband with his wife and daughter, rue de la Coutellerie; sometimes mystical and irrational rue Mouffetard. Louis de Nivelle was close to the deacon François de Pâris of the parish of Saint-Médard. On his death in 1727, he was buried in the Saint-Médard cemetery. On the day of her burial, a woman suffering from paralysis regained the use of her arm and thus began the “business of the convulsants” under Louis XV. A popular cult is returned to him, miracles would occur on his tomb … This movement worries the royal power. The convulsants must hide and their activities, which have become secret, drift towards the formation of sects where mysticism and eroticism are mixed. The apartment on rue Mouffetard, a stone’s throw from the cemetery, was certainly rented by Louis Nivelle to indulge in questionable practices and hide his nest egg there.
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