Buried treasure poses Holocaust puzzle for Hungary museum

A vast and "unique" trove of antique and Roman-era coins, unearthed in what was one of Hungary's wartime Jewish ghettos, is proving a conundrum for historians.

Thrilled with the chance discovery of the 2,800 gold and silver coins spanning decades and continents, researchers are in the dark however about who collected and then hid them.

That the coins were buried under a house whose one-time owner, the likely collector, is presumed to have been murdered in the Holocaust deepens the mystery.

According to a Hungarian Jewish organisation, the hoard also exposes how gaps remain in what is known about Hungary's Jews during World War II.

The current owners of the house in the town of Keszthely, 190 kilometres (120 miles) southwest of the capital Budapest, stumbled across the coins in February during work on the cellar.

They were likely hidden by a Jewish owner who was later deported to a Nazi German death camp in 1944, said Balint Havasi, director of Keszthely's Balatoni Museum where the items are currently exhibited.

"It's a priceless collection that can also help us learn about the Holocaust," Havasi told AFP.

In a letter to the museum, the building's current owners explained how they had been digging a hole in the cellar after pumping out groundwater when they came across the hoard.

"We slowly dug out five carefully sealed and buried glass jars," reads the letter seen by AFP.

"When we opened one of them, we were greeted by an amazing sight, just like in a fairy tale: hundreds of coins, real treasure," it continued. "We hope that it can return to its legal owners one day."