The Lydian Hoard (Karun Treasure)

A treasure dug illegally from burial mounds in Uşak Province, Turkey, bought for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and said by some in Uşak to carry a curse on the men who dug it up.

Özgen Acar told The UNESCO Courier in 2001 how the treasure left Turkey. Four farmers found it in a burial mound in Uşak Province and sold it to a smuggler in Izmir, who sold it on to a New York antiques gallery owner. Neighbouring villagers, hearing of the money, chose to have a go themselves, and around then two other mounds lost their frescoes, which also went to New York. Acar said he was still angry with Dietrich von Bothmer, the Metropolitan Museum of Art's curator of Greek and Roman art, who acquired it for the museum.

BBC News calls it the treasure of Croesus, the 6th-century BC ruler of Lydia, and Wikipedia calls the collection the Karun Treasure. In 2006 BBC News reported that two pieces had been stolen from a Turkish museum and swapped for fakes. The Guardian reported in 2012 that a golden brooch of Croesus was to be returned to Turkey.

In the same report The Guardian wrote that, by popular rumour, each of the seven men who dug the mounds illegally met a violent end or serious misfortune. Wikipedia repeats the story and flags its claim that some in Uşak link the treasure to a curse as lacking a named source. No source names the seven men or records their deaths.