Alex Trelinski
A German woman has pumped in over €1.6 million into Valencian coffers because she never made a will and had no remaining family members.
The final part of sorting out her estate involves an auction of Nazi and Francoist military medals along with 31 gold coins.
As previously reported by the Olive Press, Gertrudis Ficher had three properties in Denia on the Costa Blanca.
After she died intestate in 2005, they were sold off by the Valencian government who used the proceeds for social projects.
Mrs. Ficher kept herself to herself and very little was known about her.
She had €350,000 in her bank accounts and a share portfolio worth €480,000, which were also appropriated by Valencian authorities.
17 years after her death, the last piece of estate business is set to be concluded.
A collection of military and diplomatic medals along with coins were found in Mrs. Ficher’s bank safety deposit box.
The government deemed the items as ‘not of public interest’ and not being ‘culturally significant’ as there are many similar examples around.
Nevertheless, more money will be raised from the forthcoming auction of the items.
It will be the first time the Valencia government is putting individual intestate estate items under the hammer.
The auction was announced last year but experts had to produce a report that the military medals were not awarded through ‘loss of life’.
The coins from the Austro-Hungarian empire are 37 mm in diameter and have a gold content of 30.49 grams of pure 24-carat gold.
They are dated 1915 and have an estimated total value of €50,000 but will be split into five lots to attract more bidders.
The selection of medals and badges include those given out during the era of General Franco and a swastika-emblazoned medal first given by Adolf Hitler to foreign diplomats in 1937.
Potential bidders are asked to make contact with Valencia’s Finance Ministry for more information.
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