Medieval Cross Found in Trash Could Be Worth Up to $500K

VIENNA, Austria — A medieval cross that was hidden from the Nazis and ended up in the trash has been found to be worth more than a half-million dollars, police said yesterday.

A woman looking for old crockery in a trash container in the Austrian town of Zell am See stumbled upon the piece in 2004, Salzburg police said yesterday, when they announced the find.

The woman, who has not been identified, apparently did not know what she had found and stashed the cross behind her couch. Last month, a neighbor with a keen eye had an inkling the cross might be something special and took it to a local museum in the village of Leogang.

Now, experts say the cross could be worth more than $500,000 at auction.

An investigation showed that, until World War II, the cross was part of an art collection belonging to Polish nobility at Goluchow Castle, police Colonel Josef Holzberger said.

Before the outbreak of war, the piece was hidden from the Nazis in the cellar of a building in Warsaw, according to a police statement. But the Nazis found it in 1941 and later brought it to a castle in Austria. Investigators are still trying to determine what happened next. Experts at Vienna's fine arts museum determined that it comes from Limoges, France, and dates to about 1200. Police said similar pieces have been auctioned for up to $536,620.