“TREASURE HUNTERS” / Treasure hunter, it’s a dream job that makes which can also make you rich. If in France, there are more than 100,000 people who indulge in this leisure activity, professionals can be counted on the fingers of one hand. History buffs, treasure hunters spend their lives immersed in archives, excavating the remains of a wreck, crisscrossing the desert or inspecting castles and other properties full of promises. Their quest often turns into and obsession, and all means are then good to achieve it.
Off the coast of Florida, John Brandon tirelessly hunts for gold from Spanish galleons. These ships returned to Europe with their holds full of the riches of the New World. John is on the trail of the treasure of the 1715 Fleet, sunk a few hundred meters from the shore: “We have drawn up an inventory of the riches on board these boats. At the bottom of the sea, there would still be between 500 and 750 million dollars in treasure ».
In Belarus, on the Bérézina River, Jérôme Beaucour and his team of archaeologists are on the trail of a historical treasure: objects that belonged to the soldiers of Napoleon's Grande Armée. On their return from the Russian campaign in 1812, more than 30,000 men perished in what is today an immense swamp. For Jérôme, doing these excavations is paying homage to all these soldiers: “Finding objects that belonged to them is retracing their story in the great History, and that fascinates me.”
Luc Labenne's treasures fell from the sky: extremely rare meteorites, coming straight from the Moon, Mars and even much further away. This year, he is going to look for them in Chile, in the driest desert in the world, the Atacama. A one-week mission, full of surprises. The most beautiful of these extra-terrestrial stones are worth a fortune.
David Cuisinier doesn't go that far to find his treasures. With his team of prospectors at home, he organizes excavations throughout France, at the request of owners. His next mission takes him to a mill, a place conducive to great finds. David will comb the entire building, and inspect places unexplored for more than 250 years.