Thread by @DannyBate4

Gather round, folks - I've got a story.

Like the best stories, it involves spies, saints, buried treasure, a race against time and a shedload of expensive alcohol. It's also true.

We begin in 1984, in Vienna, when an American businessman makes an appointment at an embassy...

The embassy? Czechoslovak. The businessman? Danny Douglas (pictured).

Mr Douglas has an offer for the Czechoslovak state. He's willing to pay $250,000 to be able to enter the country, and to find and take away something.

However, he will not tell them what (or where) it is.

Naturally, this piques the interest of the powers-that-be in Czechoslovakia.

Thus, while they hesitantly agree to Douglas's offer, a secret mission is also launched to locate the object first - and they have only three weeks in which to do so, before the contract is signed.

The team is led by František Maryška (pictured), a senior criminal investigator. Their focus is Douglas himself, since everything depends on the information he reveals.

Espionage begins - undercover agents follow and meet Douglas, attempting to trick him into revealing more.

Mention is even made of 'extreme' methods for extracting clues - such as blackmail.

The Czechoslovak side gain very little to go off. They know that the object:

- is located about 150 km from Nuremberg
- is large and made of metal
- was hidden at the end of WWII

The distance from Nuremberg puts the object somewhere in the west of Bohemia, and so the Czechoslovak team of police investigators and historians settle on the castle of Bečov nad Teplou, a grand castle and estate owned before the war by the Beaufort-Spontin family.

With the clock ticking and the date of signing fast approaching, searching the castle and acres of land in Bečov was an almost impossible task.

However, in one of the final meetings with Maryška or his agents (who were all undercover), Douglas let something slip.

The agents ask Douglas, innocently, about what tools they need to bring. Douglas, innocently, responds that they won't need any.

This is vital.

If tools aren't needed, in winter, the object must be inside. The team can now focus all their efforts on the buildings at Bečov.

Moreover, because they know the object is made of metal, they can use police equipment to scan for it.

The date of signing is mere days away, and the team are close to giving up.

Finally, on November 5th 1985, while digging in the castle chapel, they find something.

The reliquary of St Maurus.

Believed to contain relics of St Maurus, St John the Baptist and St Timothy, the reliquary was made in what's now Belgium in the 13th century.

It originally belonged to the Abbey of Florennes, but was acquired by the Beaufort-Spontin family, who brought it to Bečov.

The reliquary has since been restored at great expensive (after regrettable years of neglect in the vaults of the Czechoslovak National Bank), and is now on display at Bečov.

It is the second most important and valuable historical artefact in the country, after the crown jewels.

But wait - there's more!

When the Beaufort-Spontins buried the reliquary and fled the country in 1945, they also buried their alcohol with it.

Today, this collection of over 130 bottles of antique wine, champagne and cognac is worth 20 million crowns.

It was of course the current members of the Beaufort-Spontin family who hired Danny Douglas to try to get the reliquary out of Czechoslovakia.

In that regard, he failed - but at least there are now no hard feelings between him and Maryška, the two former adversaries.

Konec/End.