Tree trunk pulled from Chinese river and dumped in factory backyard turns out to be rare US$3m treasure
Timber turns out to be golden thread wood that was once reserved for the use of royalty
A rare piece of 600-year-old wood that was once reserved for the use of the royal family has been found lying in the backyard of a furniture factory in central China, local media reported.
The Phoebe zhennan tree trunk, also known as golden thread wood, had been lying among the weeds at the factory in Jiayu county, Hubei province for five years before it was identified.
It has now been valued at 20 million yuan (US$3 million), but rather than cashing in the owner has decided to donate it to a museum, Chutian Golden News reported on Thursday.
Lei Jun, owner of the factory, told the newspaper that the wood had been found in a river in December 2012 and a local fisherman had asked for his help in removing it.
They hired a crane to carry out the operation, which took them hours.
“The wood was more than 19 metres long, wider than my waist and weighed more than five tonnes. It was too long to be transported, so we had to saw it into two parts to move them into the factory. It cost 90,000 yuan,” Lei told the newspaper