Relic Hunter: Spear of Destiny

Chapter Eighteen: Treasure And More

Gemma pushed on the fake back wall and walked through. They found themselves standing in a small foyer of some kind. It was dark, but the light from the office showed a hallway leading downward.

Gemma and Finn took a step forward. She didn't need her flashlight because with every step they took a section of the hallway would light up.

They were steadily going downwards until they were far underground. They took the next step and watched as section by section of lights came on illuminating a large underground chamber.

And they stopped.

Not because they were afraid.

Not because they couldn't move. They stopped because of what they saw.

"Look at that, Finn," Gemma whispered.

"What is this place?" Finn asked.

"I've heard about it, even read about it. But I never thought I would see it."

"What?"

"The Nazi treasure. The stolen paintings, jewels, everything they looted during the war. This is it." Gemma twirled around taking in everything.

Finn took a step forward and picked up a painting. "Do you what this is, Gemma. This is an original Van Gogh. This painting, 'Painter on the road to Tarascon' went missing in the 1930's. It was believed to be burned with all the other art work that Hitler deemed degenerate art."

"Why would he burn it? It's not degenerate," Gemma asked, studying the painting.

Finn shook his head. "No. Not the art, the artist. One of Hitler's first actions when he came into power was the cleansing of the German culture. Any artist that was not seen as having arayn blood was thought of as unworthy and his paintings destroyed."

Gemma walked over to a display of three, jewel encrusted, beautiful oval shaped sculptures. "These are three of the lost Fabrege' eggs. What are these doing here? They were last seen in Russia."

But Finn was looking through crates of paintings. "Here's Rapael's, 'Portrait of a young man.' and Aleksander Greymski. Here is an original Kirchner. These were thought to be destroyed years ago by Hitler."

"Finn!" Gemma gasped. "Look!"

Finn reluctantly left the art and stood next to Gemma. They were staring at three large panels. These panels were made of amber backed with gold leaf and mirrors. "These panels are from the Amber room," Gemma whispered. She wanted to touch them but they were against the far wall blocked by several crates. "Do you think the Wagner's know what is under their museum?"

"I don't know. Hitler could have had these brought here while he was here and they know nothing about it. I mean generations had past since Hitler's reign."

This was all overwhelming and Gemma was torn at what to do. But she had to focus. She has to find the second spear. "Okay," she took a deep breath. "With all of this treasure the spear has to be here somewhere. Let's look for that and get out of here."

Finn turned to Gemma. "Are you kidding? This treasure is priceless. It contains art and jewels thought to be lost forever. We can't just walk away from it now?"

"We're not. But we need to find that spear. All of this isn't going anywhere. It will still be here and we can deal with it then."

"But, the Amber room panels along are worth a fortune alone," Finn pointed to the treasure. "Do you know how long people searched for that?"