After four years of legal wrangling, publisher Jann Wenner has finally won the right to keep his pot of gold from a bordello.
A handyman found coins on Wenner’s Sun Valley ranch and claimed them as his under an old miner’s law in Idaho.
The coins were said to have been a buried treasure of a prostitute whose bordello sat a century ago on the site of Wenner’s hilltop ranch, where a gold-miners’ town had once thrived.
Estimates of their value ranged from $30,000 to more than $1 million.
Wenner’s former handyman, Greg Corliss, uncovered the coins while digging a driveway on the ranch and claimed them under Idaho’s “finders- keepers” law.
But after a series of court fights and appeals, an Idaho appeals judge ruled that Wenner owns whatever is found on his property.
During the trials, Wenner stashed the booty at the publishing offices of his Rolling Stone, Us and Men’s Journal magazines.
Wenner claimed the coins were “mislaid” on his 200-acre ranch and under Idaho law belonged to him until the original owner shows up. The judge agreed with Wenner.
The 96 gold coins, dating back to 1857, had been buried in an Mason jar about 90 years ago, according to lawyers.
Corliss “certainly wasn’t taking ‘No’ for an answer, but he’s lost his appeals, and we trust that it’s finally over,” said Wenner’s spokesman.