Selling Needs's video: 400 200 stolen gold in Russia

Rumors abound that during its epically unsuccessful invasion of Russia in 1812, Napoleon’s army looted some 80 tons of gold, among other riches, from Moscow. But none of it ever left Russia. “One could have thought that there was some sort of a caravan ... or an ancient army coming back after a huge raid with captives and booty.” That's is how Phillippe Ségur, a member of Napoleon’s personal staff and later a historian, described the dozens of horse-drawn carts laden with what French forces had plundered in Moscow. The fate of those trophies is still unknown, although there is a reason to believe they remained in Russia. The explorer and treasure-hunter Vladimir Poryvayev claims there exists a list of treasures that Napoleon’s troops took from Moscow. “The items mentioned there weren’t sold at auctions and didn’t appear in private collections,“ he said (the article is in Russian). “There were not only precious stones, jewelry, but also pieces of art from repositories of the Moscow Kremlin and from Moscow churches.” Those 200 or so carts also contained items stolen by the French invaders from as many as 15,000 residences, according to historian Alexander Seregin. “The most disgusting thing, though, was what they did in churches and monasteries,” he said. “They took away icons, carved out jewelry. … They melted it, as in every church there was a smelting furnace. Precious metals were melted into ingots and stamped with the letter “N”. All this was taking place for a month. This appalled Napoleon himself and he issued an order demanding an end to the looting.”