Prosecutors in Lithuania have opened a pre-trial investigation into the alleged misappropriation of part of a royal treasure discovered beneath Vilnius Cathedral, the Prosecutor General’s Office announced Monday.
The treasure, hidden during World War Two, was unearthed in the cathedral’s crypt in late 2024 and early 2025 and included items of significant historical and cultural value, including royal crowns and religious artefacts.
“A prosecutor from the Vilnius District Prosecutor’s Office today decided to launch a pre-trial investigation into the possible misappropriation of part of the treasure found in the crypt of Vilnius Cathedral,” the office said in a press release.
The decision follows information submitted by Saulius Poderis, a restorer of artworks, who alleged that three valuable objects seen in early photographs of the treasure were missing from the official inventory published by the Department of Cultural Heritage.
The items in question are a silver plaque, a golden orb, and an object resembling human bones.
Poderis raised concerns publicly in mid-July, saying the missing items had been visible in photos he took of the cache, but were not listed in the state-published documentation. He also claimed that the treasure holds immense value for scholars, the Lithuanian state, and the public.
The hoard included burial crowns belonging to Alexander Jagiellon, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, and his wife, Elisabeth of Habsburg, as well as the posthumous crown of Barbora Radvilaitė, among other royal insignia.
Also found were six silver plaques from the Chapel of St Casimir, along with votive offerings, rings, earrings, crosses, bishop insignia, and a plaque from the coffin of Bishop Benediktas Vaina.
The discovery was publicly revealed in January at a press conference held by the Archdiocese of Vilnius, sparking widespread national and scholarly interest.
Poderis later claimed that he had known about the hidden cache for over a decade, and accused the archdiocese of appropriating his discovery. He said he located the secret compartment using an endoscopic camera during a guided tour years earlier.
In response to the controversy, Culture Minister Šarūnas Birutis pledged stricter protection of the cathedral’s crypts and emphasised that such excavations should be conducted under state oversight rather than private initiative.
However, the Department of Cultural Heritage was neither informed nor involved in the removal of the treasure, and the process was not recorded. As a result, the department imposed a €868 fine on the Archdiocese of Vilnius in early February for procedural violations.
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