A particularly honest climber, who in August 2013 found a metal box full of gems while climbing near Mont Blanc, France, has recently been awarded a half share of the found treasure – an estimated $169,000, IDEX Online reports.
The climber, who remains anonymous, was climbing the Bossons Glacier – one of the larger glaciers of the Mont Blanc – when he chanced upon a metal box “containing dozens of emeralds, rubies and sapphires.” The gems are believed to have been on board an Air India flight from Mumbai to New York that crashed in the area in January 1966, killing all 117 people on board.
Recently, the mayor of Chamonix, a resort area at the base of Mont Blanc, announced that the gems will be equally split between the municipality and the climber. The climber told Le Parisien that he would use the proceeds “to renovate his apartment.”
